[ad_1]
“In fact, we met even after he was appointed chairman of the State Capture Commission.” This is what former President Jacob Zuma has told State Capture Coroner Raymond Zondo, in an affidavit. The ruling on the judge’s recusal was postponed Wednesday after Zuma submitted an affidavit challenging the judge’s testimony and insisting the two were friends. The ruling will now take place on Thursday morning.
Former President Jacob Zuma has questioned whether he and the chairman of the State Commission of Investigation Capture, Judge Raymond Zondo, are acquaintances and not friends. In fact, he says in his affidavit; saw the judge after he was appointed to preside over the investigation in 2018.
Zondo said on Monday, November 16, that he had not been to Zuma’s presidential office or went to his official residence for a personal meeting while he was president.
In a new affidavit sent to Zondo on Tuesday, November 17, Zuma states:
“The improbability of this statement by the president is obvious. I assume that the term of my Presidency you refer to includes the very period during which the Chief Justice elected him as the presiding judge of the Commission … shortly after the Chief Justice had been selected by the President of the Supreme Court, I held a briefing with him at the official residence in Durban.
This has caused Zondo to delay for the third time his judgment on whether or not he will recuse himself as president as requested by Zuma.
While Zondo tried this week to put distance between himself and Zuma saying they didn’t attend each other birthdays or family funerals, Zuma said: “I argue that we were never friends… In fact, in our discussion at my residence in Forest Town (which I have referred to), we discussed, among other things, how our friendship, if not managed properly, could put jeopardizing their judicial ambitions or rising through the ranks of the judiciary. “
This discussion took place after Zondo was appointed to the court, said Zuma, who also said the judge had been coy about this detail as it reveals they are closer than mere acquaintances.
“While the president goes to great lengths to suggest that I was not his friend or a person of influence and / or in government, he nevertheless had to come to me to discuss a matter that he considered of public importance.
“The president does not indicate why he would discuss a matter of public importance with a person who was neither his friend nor a person in government or a person of influence.”
Zondo did not elaborate on what his discussions with Zuma were about when they first met and suggested that they were meeting meetings at the annual opening of parliament or other social occasions. But Zuma’s affidavit says the judge, and he had multiple tête-á-têtes at his Forest Town, Johannesburg home, both while in office and when he was removed as vice president and out of office between 2005 and 2007.
“I dispute the president’s claims that the Forest Town meeting took place only during the time that I was no longer in government. My meeting (s) with him in Forest Town was during my tenure as Vice President … in fact, we met several times at my residence in Forest Town. It was our meeting place. ”
Zuma also objected to Zondo’s claim that the former president had no influence on his judicial career because he was “only” a provincial MEC when the judge was appointed to the court. In fact, he said, then-President Nelson Mandela had consulted the ANC on a wide range of issues and Zuma was a national president of the ANC at the time and also the provincial president of the ANC KwaZulu-Natal.
“Although the president seeks to diminish my role at that time, I was part of serious discussions in the country. One of the critical challenges at the time was that, while the judiciary needed to be transformed, there was a shortage of black legal professionals who could rise to the bench.
“Consequently, his attempt to communicate that I was insignificant in the national political arena is false.”
Zondo was appointed a Labor Court Judge in 1997 and appointed Vice President of the Supreme Court in 2017 by Zuma on the recommendation of the Judicial Service Commission.
“The President (Zondo) is being less than sincere in his recollection of the events in the Declaration (he read on Monday, November 16),” Zuma said.
It is likely that the former head of state will use the dispute over the degree of friendship with Zondo (or not) and the degree to which he influenced (or not) the judicial degree of the judge to reinforce his case for recusal. If Zondo refuses to recuse himself, Zuma’s legal team is likely to decide on a higher court review, as he has argued that the judge cannot preside over a factual dispute over his own statement.
The twice-postponed ruling is scheduled for Thursday morning. DM
