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Vice President of the Supreme Court Raymond Zondo.
Supreme Court Vice President Raymond Zondo responded to claims by former President Jacob Zuma that he should withdraw from the state’s capture commission of inquiry on the grounds that he believes Zondo is biased.
In a letter to the commission dated Sept. 28, the former president, through his legal team, said that one of the reasons Zuma wanted Zondo to recuse himself was that they had historical family relationships.
But, in a statement released by the commission’s secretary, Professor Itumeleng Mosala, on Thursday, a month after Zuma’s letter, Zondo said that in the mid-1990s, while still practicing as a private attorney, he filed a relationship with a woman outside of which a child was born.
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“Unbeknownst to anyone at the time, that woman’s sister, Ms. Thobeka Madiba, many years after that relationship had ended, would marry Mr. Jacob Zuma.
‘No relationship’
“To my knowledge, Mr. Zuma had no relationship with Ms. Thobeka Madiba in the mid-1990s.
“The fact that Mr. Zuma married the sister of a woman with whom I had had a relationship that had ended so many years before that marriage, has never influenced the performance of my judicial functions in the many matters that involve Mr. Zuma. in which I have served as a judge of the Constitutional Court since 2012, and it has nothing to do with the performance of my duties as president of the commission, “said Zondo.
“In fact, in none of the many Mr. Zuma-related matters that I have sat on in the past has Mr. Zuma ever voiced any complaints or concerns, nor has he filed a request for my disqualification.
“I thought it was necessary to provide the above clarification, but at this time I do not intend to address any of the other allegations made in Mr. Zuma’s attorney letter, as I will address them if Mr. Zuma’s request is submitted. Zuma for my challenge.. “
