Former president Jacob Zuma’s plan is to scuttle the State Capture inquiry so he can nullify the evidence already presented at the commission by questioning the integrity of the judge. 

If he cannot scuttle the inquiry, he wants to prevent it from completing its deliberations without him giving evidence or responding to questions. 

Zuma’s main excuse for refusing to present himself in front of Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo is his claim that once upon a time they had girlfriends who were siblings. According to Zuma, Zondo will not treat him fairly because their former girlfriends were siblings! What cockeyed logic. 

This is Zuma, the man who has claimed he wants to clear his name in court from the time when Schabir Shaik, his former financial adviser, was arrested — up to now. Ever since Shaik was found guilty by the high court in Durban/eThekwini in 2005 for paying Zuma R1.2-million and for soliciting a bribe from the French arms company Thomson-CSE (now Thales), as well as guilty of fraud for writing off more than R1-million of Zuma’s unpaid debts, Zuma has found every trick, every excuse in the law books, to evade presenting himself before the commissions and the courts. 

The man is a professional liar. When former Public Protector Thuli Madonsela asked him questions about his close friends and patrons, the Guptas, and their meetings with them at the Guptas’ mansion in Saxonwold, he refused to answer, unaware that Madonsela was tape-recording him. Later, when Madonsela published the report, Zuma cried foul, claiming he had not been given a chance to respond. The Public Protector then played the recording where she was heard asking Zuma questions about his relations with the Guptas, with Zuma refusing to answer. His lie about not being given a chance to respond was thrown out the window. 

The Zondo Commission has listened to more than 50 witnesses and read affidavits, with more than 30 witnesses implicating Zuma in wrongdoing. Instead of Zuma answering to the implications with affidavits or presenting himself to the commission, he has sought to find ways of not answering the accusations and found ways to evade, being aware that this is breaking the law. Zuma now plans to dislodge Zondo and scuttle the entire commission and its findings. 

The Constitution and democracy are in huge danger, with President Cyril Ramaphosa paralysed — a captive of Zuma’s cronies in the ANC top six. The entire process of constitutional democracy in South Africa is under threat from a cabal of the ANC elite who have plundered the finances of the state for their own private riches. 

Many members of the ANC National Executive Committee and ANC Members of Parliament are implicated in various illicit projects in state-owned entities and municipalities. It is not in their interests for Zuma to appear before the Zondo Commission. They want the commission to be stopped immediately, with all revelations classified under national security and sealed off from the public. 

The unity slate conceived at the ANC’s National Elective Conference at Nasrec in December 2017 by DD Mabuza, deputy president of the ANC and South Africa, is a toxic concoction that will lead to an explosion in the near future. At the heart of the battles inside the ANC and government is access to the Treasury and with it access to tenders and a lavish lifestyle. 

Soviet-trained and as a former member of the Central Committee of the South African Communist Party, Zuma knows how to use Marxist language to prevent himself from being tried in court for theft of public funds. The ideology of radical economic transformation is designed to whip up mass public support against the constitutional process among the very people who are most hurt by the destruction of the economy caused by the looting of public funds carried out by Zuma’s cronies. 

His RET “machinery” has complained that the Zondo Commission is a waste of money. What about the Mediosa mobile clinic in the North West, was it not a waste of money? What about the Vrede Dairy Farm project in the Free State, or the asbestos project? Were they not a waste of money? Or the Gupta wedding at Sun City? Or the Bosasa millions funding electric fences and cameras for various ministers and government officials?  

Taking the country downwards and downwards, the real “radical economic transformation” is from government by looters.

Zuma defies the courts, and the ANC NEC — with its majority of his supporters — brushes the matter aside. Instead of reprimanding him, or expelling him from the ANC, they allow him to defy the law. 

Under the current conditions, the people of South Africa are aware that the ANC cannot self-cleanse and cannot self-correct. Everyone can see there is no equality before the law. Under the ANC’s culture of State Capture, we as citizens are not equal. 

A new movement for democratic reform is now a life-and-death issue for South Africa. The present electoral system puts the ANC’s party headquarters in control of the government, instead of MPs elected as individuals in constituencies accountable to voters. We, the voters, are powerless. Deployment of politicians to national Parliament, provincial parliaments and municipalities by party headquarters has proven to be a colossal disaster for the country, and for the ANC.  

This is not democracy, and the paralysis of Ramaphosa shows the danger we are in. 

It is now clear that we, the people, must speed up for parliamentary electoral reform so that we can directly elect the president, Members of Parliament, the premiers and mayors. All leaders must be directly elected by the voters. Scrap the deployment policy where only crooks are deployed.   

Let us campaign together for more democracy. DM