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The recently announced proposal by former President Jacob Zuma that Supreme Court Vice President Raymond Zondo resign as chairman of the State Capture Commission could herald a larger-scale attack on the commission’s foundations.
Advocate Paul Hoffman, who also runs Accountability Now, yesterday described Zuma’s latest legal measure as “political foreplay.”
He described the challenge request that Zuma said it would launch as a “time buying exercise.”
Zuma’s attorneys wrote to Zondo on behalf of the embattled former president on Monday, asking that the commission chairman recuse himself on grounds including “historical personal, family and professional relationships that the president should have publicly disclosed before accepting his appointment.”
They said they were in the process of drafting an application and that Zuma would “take no further part” in the commission until that application was finalized.
Zondo announced last week that it would be considering a request to force Zuma to appear before the commission.
During last week’s announcement, Zondo also set new dates in November for Zuma to take the stand. “We do not negotiate with witnesses,” he said at the time.
In their letter, Zuma’s lawyers said that this “special approach and attack” by Zuma had been “the hallmark” of the commission’s approach.
They said that Zuma had come to the conclusion “that the president is no longer capable of exercising an independent and impartial mind” and that this had been “strengthened by what he considers the president’s unwarranted public statements at the press conference.”
Hoffman said yesterday that it seemed unlikely that Zuma’s application would be successful.
“This is not a judge in a court case. This is a commissioner of a commission of inquiry. And Zuma is not a defendant, so his rights to a fair trial are not at stake. He’s just a witness, ”he said.
But in their letter, Zuma’s lawyers “reiterated” that Zuma had “questioned the legality of the establishment of this commission.”
Hoffman said Zuma could be taking a position to challenge the commission itself. Usually, it is up to the president to establish a commission and appoint a president.
“But when the then public protector Thuli Madonsela wrote her report on the state of capture, she ordered Zuma, then president, to establish a commission and determined that the Chief Justice should appoint a judge to head it because Zuma himself had been implicated.
Hoffman said yesterday that the commission was, as a result, vulnerable to attack.
Constitutional law expert Professor Pierre de Vos said yesterday that, at least at first glance, Zuma’s request for disqualification did not appear to be well founded.
“The information given so far is not enough to justify a challenge but we don’t know what the personal relationships are, so it depends on that,” he said.
De Vos said, as in a court of law, that Zondo himself was obliged to preside over the request for recusal. However, he said he was also obliged not to recuse himself unless absolutely necessary.
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