Chief justice Raymond Zondo has assured SA that he is determined that the latest extension for him to finalise the state capture inquiry report will be the last, though he argued that the delays have been necessary to ensure a satisfactory conclusion worthy of the R1bn bill.
Speaking to SABC News on Thursday night, Zondo admitted his estimations were wrong. He sent an electronic copy of part four of the report to the presidency after finalising it at 3am.
“We all want to complete this task. There is no-one who wants this finished more than I do,” he said after the high court in Pretoria gave the commission another six weeks to complete its work.
Itumeleng Mosala, the inquiry’s secretary, told Business Day an official handover of a hard copy of part four of the report will take place at the Union Buildings on Friday. “The commission had a lot of evidence on very important issues” and he wants to finalise the total report “as soon as possible”.
The urgent application for an extension was unopposed by respondents, including President Cyril Ramaphosa, several political parties and the Council for the Advancement of the SA Constitution (Casac).
The court moved the fifth and final report’s deadline from April 30 to June 15.
Zondo, who was appointed by Ramaphosa as chief justice earlier this year, oversaw the first hearing of the commission in August 2018, meaning the process will have lasted more than four years when it finally winds down. When former public protector Thuli Madonsela ordered the inquiry, which has heard evidence of the corruption that grew to define Jacob Zuma’s presidency, she said it should last about six months.
After delays that have brought into question his management of the process, Zondo said in his affidavit that he is “adamant” that the commission will continue to “do its work properly until it has completed its report”.
Zondo listed sections to be included in the final report: the Estina dairy project; the SABC; the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa); the 2013 landing of a Gupta-owned jet at Waterkloof air force base; state security; a chapter on state capture at large; and an executive summary of the total report.
Despite mounting delays and several applications for extensions, several NGOs and commentators are sympathetic, pointing to the complexity of a process that has no international precedent.
Some have said the final price tag may be closer to R2bn.
Stellenbosch University professor Marc Swilling, co-author of Anatomy of State Capture published in 2021, said he knows of no other “official judicial commission of inquiry into an historical period of state-sanctioned wrongdoing by a governing party that is still
in power”.
Casac executive secretary Lawson Naidoo agreed, saying the country needs a “full, comprehensive and proper report”.
Some critics have questioned whether the National Prosecuting Authority would have been able to charge wrongdoers if the commission had been quicker in concluding its work.
“One would have liked this all to be done and dusted with everyone behind bars, government fixed and no more corruption and no more political interference,” said Stephanie Fick from the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse. “But we all know that that’s not going to happen in the next few months.” A postponement is preferable to a “half-baked report”, she said.
Even with the six-week lifeline, Zondo has not ruled out seeking a further extension for tying up its administration.
The inquiry is building digital and physical archives holding a trove of evidence.
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