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Former President Jacob Zuma leaves the Zondo commission.
PHOTO: Gallo Images / Sowetan / Thulani Mbele
- The Constitutional Court has reserved judgment on the urgent request of the Zondo commission to force former President Jacob Zuma to appear and answer questions.
- The investigation says that Zuma’s decision not to participate in the case “demonstrates the general disdain with which he has been treating the legal system.”
- Zuma has yet to explain why he dropped the investigation on November 19, an act that the commission says amounts to criminal contempt.
The state capture investigation maintains that former President Jacob Zuma should pay the legal costs of his urgent lawsuit before the Constitutional Court to force him to testify, even though he decided not to participate in the case.
“We are using state funds to ensure that your [Zuma’s] participation in a process in which it is almost clear that he is obliged to participate, also using state funds against someone who has shown a very high level of obstinacy, “argued the defender Tembeka Nkgcukaitobi, of the investigation on Tuesday.
The country’s highest court, which heard the multiple request for the investigation against Zuma without the presence of Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng, has reserved trial in the case.
Whatever the court decides will have potentially massive consequences for the commission, which is due to complete its work by March 31 next year and contends that Zuma’s evidence is central to that process.
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Ngcukaitobi has argued that Zuma’s decision to send a one-page lawyer’s letter, rather than a formal legal notice, to the country’s highest court in response to the commission’s request against him demonstrated his “disdain for the legal system”.
In that letter, Zuma’s attorney, Eric Mabuza, stated that he would not be involved in the case “at all.”
“Historically, we [the inquiry] they have been trying to ensure that Mr. Zuma participates in the commission proceedings.
Ngcukaitobi argued:
“His choice not to participate ‘at all’ in the proceedings before this court is in itself a demonstration of the general disdain with which he has been dealing with the legal system.”
Ngcukaitobi further noted that Zuma had not met the deadline given by the Investigation to respond to his request and only sent his letter to the Constitutional Court after the Chief Justice, Mogoeng Mogoeng, issued his instructions to continue advancing in the case.
The letter, he said, was “a slight to the instructions of the Chief Justice.”
“You can’t be generous by building a disdainful letter,” Ngcukaitobi said. “It was never intended to be a legally acceptable document and it was presented that way. I intended to tell everyone who intended to listen or read that, ‘actually, you can do whatever you want, I’m not participating.’ .
By not participating in the case, Ngcukaitobi argued, Zuma had also chosen not to explain why he had withdrawn from the Investigation, an act that, according to the commission, amounted to criminal contempt.
Ngcukaitobi had previously argued that “it would be wrong for Mr. Zuma not to pay the costs at all, in light of his past conduct, in light of the conduct he has displayed before this court.”
“Mr. Zuma’s conduct illustrates that he considers himself above the law,” he argued.
Ngcukaitobi also contends that by challenging Supreme Court Vice President Raymond Zondo’s refusal to recuse himself as chairman of the investigation, Zuma “was definitely playing with the system.”
While Judge Chris Jafta emphasized that Zuma had the right to challenge Zondo’s decision, he agreed with Ngcukaitobi that the Constitutional Court should take notice of Zuma’s past conduct of “delaying or trying to avoid appearing before the commission.”
