Former president Jacob Zuma could go to prison for defying the Constitutional Court order that he must comply with a summons and appear before the state capture commission.
The commission showed on Monday that it will not pander to Zuma’s attempts to avoid questioning, with deputy chief justice Raymond Zondo saying it will approach the apex court for a contempt of court order and ask that, if found guilty, the former president be sent to jail.
Zuma on Monday evening released a statement in which he again claimed he was subject to “political propaganda”.
He declared that his time with the commission is “now finished” and that he is waiting “to face the sentence to be issued by the Constitutional Court”.
Zondo made his announcement after Zuma failed to appear before the commission despite being issued a summons.
“The commission will approach the Constitutional Court and ask it to impose a term of imprisonment on Mr Zuma if it finds he is guilty of contempt of court. It will be up to the court what it considers appropriate, but that is what the commission’s position is,” Zondo said.
The commission has already laid two criminal charges against Zuma, for walking out of proceedings in 2020 without permission and for not appearing when summoned to do so last month. For both of these he could face a fine or six months in prison.
In his statement on Monday, Zuma said “no amount of intimidation or blackmail” would change his position on appearing before the commission. “I firmly believe that we should never allow for the establishment of a judiciary in which justice, fairness and due process are discretionary and are exclusively preserved for certain litigants and not others,” he said.
The developments could put further pressure on President Cyril Ramaphosa to take a stronger stance after he chose not to deal directly with his predecessor’s defiance at the weekend’s national executive committee meeting of the ANC. He merely said non-compliance with the rule of law and constitution could lead to anarchy.
The ANC is trying to root out corruption in its ranks and to deal with leaders such as secretary-general Ace Magashule, an ally of Zuma, who is due to face corruption charges in court on Friday. Its integrity commission has recommended Magashule step aside pending the outcome of the case.
Zuma’s non-appearance at the commission came as no surprise after the former president said in a statement on February 1 that he would not co-operate with the commission and would defy the Constitutional Court order that he must appear, even if it meant he would go to prison. The former president has sought to defy and discredit the commission, where witnesses have placed him, family members and his friends, the Gupta family, at the centre of mass corruption during his nine-year rule.
Nearly 40 witnesses have directly implicated Zuma during testimony to the commission over the past two years.
While Zuma’s evidence will be critical for Zondo’s final report, his refusal to answer questions does not stop the deputy chief justice from making findings at the conclusion of the commission.
Zondo’s mandate is not to find anyone guilty but to make recommendations, which could include that law enforcement agencies investigate and prosecute certain matters, which could lead to the former president facing further legal woes.
The head of the commission’s legal team, Paul Pretorius, said that as “captain of the ship” at the time, it was up to Zuma to come to the commission and share his knowledge of what had happened and explain how it happened. “This commission is not, as many have sought in defence of their own positions to paint it as, an aggressive single-minded body that seeks to make premature findings,” he said.
“The one outstanding gap in the evidence before you [Zondo] is the person at the head of the ship, the captain of the ship.
“It is a great pity that you might be compelled to make findings without the head of the ship. But so be it; it is not from lack of trying.”
Zuma’s lawyer Eric Mabuza sent a letter to the commission informing it that his client would not attend but that this must not be seen as an act of defiance.
This was not how Zondo saw it. “It is a pity that Mr Zuma has decided not to appear before the commission today in defiance of the summons and the order of the Constitutional Court, our highest court in the land,” he said on Monday.
“It would be a pity if anybody did it, but it was done by a former president of the country who took an oath that he would uphold the constitution and that is a big pity.”
Mabuza gave the commission two reasons for Zuma’s refusal to appear on Monday. He said the review application to have Zondo’s decision not to recuse himself as chair of the commission had not yet been determined and the summons issued was done irregularly.
Zondo and Pretorius said these excuses do not hold water. The deputy chief justice explained that if Zuma felt the summons was irregular, he had to approach a court to have it reviewed and set aside.
“This is very serious because if it is allowed to prevail there will be lawlessness and chaos in the courts ... If the message … is that people can ignore, disregard or defy summons and orders of courts ... and that they can defy those with impunity, there will be very little that will be left of our democracy,” Zondo said.
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