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Democratic Alliance deputy Glynnis Breytenbach.
Nardus Engelbrecht, Gallo Images, archive
- Former President Jacob Zuma should be arrested and prosecuted if he does not appear before the Zondo commission, DA deputy Glynnis Breytenbach said.
- Zuma has made it clear that he was willing to face jail rather than appear before the commission.
- DA leader John Steenhuisen said President Cyril Ramaphosa should appear before the Zondo commission to be held accountable not only for his role, but also for his party.
DA MP Glynnis Breytenbach says former President Jacob Zuma “has never considered himself subject to the rule of law.”
Breytenbach was speaking during the party’s weekly webcast. The inner track, focusing on the explosive testimony of Zondo’s commission of inquiry into the state capture.
He said the former president “had always felt deeply uncomfortable living in a democratic state.”
“He has never considered himself subject to the rules of the law, so he has always lived outside of those rules and has shown that even before he became president, the fact that he became president should already raise the question.
READ | Zondo commission criticizes Zuma’s refusal to obey ConCourt’s order
She said:
“He used state resources to employ the Stalingrad approach, to be held accountable for nothing, criminal or otherwise. It’s always someone else’s fault, he’s always the victim of some kind of conspiracy, he’s never held accountable, he’s never done anything wrong and now, again, he’s doing it. He’s done it with the weapons thing. ”
Following a Constitutional Court ruling in favor of the commission, the former president made it clear that he was willing to face jail time rather than appear before the commission to answer questions about his mandate.
On Monday, Zuma issued a statement and maintained that his challenge was motivated by the Constitutional Court’s decision that he did not have a general “right to silence” in response to the hundreds of questions the investigation wishes to ask him.
He found that while Zuma had the right to protect himself against self-incrimination, he needed to explain why his response might frame him for a specific offense to exercise it.
READ | ‘Hands off Zuma’: Ace Magashule comes out in defense of former president for defying ConCourt’s order
Zuma had argued that the supreme court “effectively decided that, as an individual citizen, I could no longer expect my basic constitutional rights to be protected and upheld by the country’s Constitution.”
“I was moved to publicly express my solidarity with the feelings and concerns that were expressed to me about a clearly politicized segment of the judiciary that now heralds an imminent constitutional crisis in this country.”
He is scheduled to appear before the commission on February 15.
Appear
Breytenbach said that if Zuma did not appear before Supreme Court Vice President Raymond Zondo, he should be arrested and prosecuted.
In a statement Tuesday night, the commission said Zuma’s defiance showed that he considered himself “above the law and the Constitution.”
The commission’s secretary had been instructed to open a criminal case against Zuma for ignoring a subpoena and failing to appear last month.
Meanwhile, DA leader John Steenhuisen said that President Cyril Ramaphosa should also appear before the commission and be held accountable, not only for himself, but for his party.
Steenhuisen said it was not “good enough” for the president to say he was “shocked” by certain revelations.
“President Ramaphosa was the chairman of the ANC cadre deployment committee for many years and had been responsible for many of the people who have served on SOE boards of directors.”
He added that Ramaphosa worked with Zuma for many years, as his deputy, adding that, as the leader of the ANC, he had a duty to be held accountable.
