[ad_1]
Illustration: James Durno
The fact that former President Jacob Zuma ducks and dives to avoid the Zondo Commission means he is running out of time and money and shakes a bit in his boots.
First published by the weekly Daily Maverick 168
While he might believe he’s above the law, Jacob Zuma clearly fears him.
There were some flaps in the original regulations guiding the State Capture Commission of Inquiry and promulgated by Zuma shortly before he resigned, under duress, as president of South Africa in February 2018. First, the regulations did not provide for the consequences of a witness who refused to answer questions and, secondly, the persons involved were protected from prosecution for any crime exposed in the commission.
Lipstick on a pig, in other words.
In January, that little loophole was closed when a new sub-regulation was inserted stating that anyone who intentionally obstructs, restrains or obstructs the president or any official would be guilty of a crime.
Then, in June, the gap was further sealed with another amendment that allows law enforcement agencies to access the evidence presented in commission.
With those two fire exits out of Zuma’s reach, aside from selling socks, he was always going to go all out.
Man really believes that he is above the law.
Like Trump, like Nixon, Zuma established an imperial presidency in conflict with the duties of presidential office in a constitutional democracy.
The highest court considered him a constitutional criminal, so it is not surprising that the former president does not respect the law and is a threat to democratic principles.
Zuma, at present, has been implicated by no less than 34 witnesses who have publicly placed him at the center of a political project aimed at capturing the institutions of the SA state to divert billions of public funds to a criminal political and business elite .
This under the guise of a radical economic transformation.
From the country’s national airline to its energy company, from its railroads to its ports, from its mines to its hospitals and its dairy farms, no corner was left unrescued as the project was launched during Zuma’s tenure as president between 2009 and 2018.
Zuma’s sizable network of borer beetles began to insert themselves within the institutions of democracy; the judicial system, the forces of order, the National Prosecutor’s Office, the State Security Agency, the Intelligence, Tax and Correctional Services, Internal Affairs and the ANC itself. No province was left intact, no municipality, no district. Everything would be eaten from the inside out.
When those in the network faced potential exposure, the weapons of choice were costly legal proceedings paid for out of a bottomless public purse.
From SARS to SAPS to IPID, DPCI, and NPA, officials were sidelined, configured, subjected to legal red tape, overwhelming costs, bogus private investigations, and tailor-made reports with negative findings. Zuma, like Nixon and Trump, has been relentless in saving his own skin and ruling out friend and foe in equal measure.
In Zuma’s case this would include wives, one who was falsely accused of poisoning him and one who has been excommunicated from the marital home.
It was former comrade and later Minister of Intelligence Ronnie Kasrils who described Zuma as “cheater, cunning, cunning, deceptive and manipulative.” This is evidenced in an April 2020 disclosure by Zuma, in another last-minute attempt in the Constitutional Court to suspend his prosecution for corruption regarding the arms business, that he would have been happy to take the position in 2005 against his adviser. financial. , Schabir Shaik, if he [Zuma] immunity was granted.
No one has moved more vigorously over the simmering pot of justice than Jacob Zuma.
The courts are his domain. From contesting rape charges to countless attempts to stop his corruption prosecution, to trying to evade personal responsibility for the improvements to his private home in Nkandla, he knows the heat, he thrives on the sizzle, as do his followers. Zuma tested some flames in July 2019 when he first appeared at the commission, wounded and paranoid, accusing agents, spies and enemies of plotting against him and his followers. Accusations are always vague and all-encompassing.
This week, on Tuesday December 15, the same day that his legal team informed the commission that Zuma would not oppose his candidacy for the Constitutional Court, the former president launched his own challenge before the High Court of Pretoria against the refusal of the Vice President of the Supreme Court Zondo to recuse himself as president. of the commission.
Zondo has approached the supreme court to force Zuma to appear before the commission between January 18 and 22, and February 15 and 19, 2021, to defend himself and respond to serious claims.
Zuma could be counting on turning back the hands of time in hopes that the commission will stop shuddering in March 2021 when it is expected to complete its work.
The deadline was extended to make up for the Covid-19 pandemic and the attendant delays and this could very well happen again.
But a showdown in the Zondo Commission awaits, one way or another.
Whatever the outcome of Zuma’s challenges, the Zondo Commission of Inquiry has enabled millions of South Africans to witness, first-hand and from those who were there, what the Zuma presidency and those who aided and instigated it did. to South Africa.
Not to mention what he did to tarnish the star of the African National Congress by turning it, for now, more into a criminal organization disguised as a political party.
Zuma’s choice of silence on accountability to the commission is evidence that while he might believe he is above the law, he still fears it and that is all that matters, for now. DM168
This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available for free to Pick ‘n Pay Smartshoppers at these Pick’ n Pay stories.
