Only a court can deal with Zuma's defiance, Zondo told

Only a court can deal with Zuma's defiance, Zondo told

The commission of inquiry into state capture has heard that only a court of law can deal with former president Jacob Zuma's defiance of a Constitutional Court order.

Jacob Zuma
WIKUS DE WET/ POOL/ AFP

 Zuma was scheduled to appear before the commission of inquiry into state capture on Monday, as ordered by the Constitutional Court.

 The commission has set aside a week to deal with Zuma's evidence.

 To date, Zuma has been implicated by 40 witnesses some of whom have placed him at the center of facilitating state capture by the Guptas.

 But the commission received an email from Zuma's legal team, Mabuza Attorneys, on Monday. In the letter the former head of state makes it clear that he would be appearing before the commission.

 The letter comes after a media statement issued by Zuma early this month where explicitly said he is prepared to go to prison than appear before the commission.

 "Whether Mr Zuma believes he has been accused of wrongdoing or not, which appears to be the case, his responses to those allegations are still directly relevant to the work of this commission,” said evidence leader Paul Pretorius.

 “Numerous statements have been made by or on behalf of Mr Zuma that he has not been implicated in any wrongdoing by any witnesses, if that is so, then it is difficult to understand why he would need to rely on a right to silence.  

 The commission’s chair, Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, said it seems clear that Zuma will defy the summons and the apex court.

 "That seems consistent with his conduct before this commission on the 19th of November when he was issued a summons, came to the commission but left without my permission. His foundation a media statement on the same day saying that it had been assured by him that he would rather go to jail than appear before the commission.”

 Both agreed that Zuma's latest reasons were baseless, as Zuma’s legal team failed to inform the Constitutional Court of his application to review the decision by Zondo not to recuse himself from the commission.

 Pretorius said the review application by Zuma has no bearing on his appearance at the commission.

The only option seemingly left for the commission is to hand the matter over to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA)

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