Chief justice Raymond Zondo said he has no regrets as he pulled down a curtain on the work of a commission of inquiry into state capture by handing over final parts of his report to President Cyril Ramaphosa on Wednesday night.
Zondo, who delivered the last volumes after more than a two-hour delay, frustrations and speculation that went into tailspin, apologised for keeping South Africans waiting and said the commission faced challenges they could not avoid. He described the commission's work as one fraught with challenges.
But when asked if he thought there were matters that he could have handled differently during the four-year period of the commission's work, Zondo said faced with the same situations he would not have acted any differently.
“I like evaluating my actions and my decisions from time to time because I believe that one should always be open to recognise if one has made a mistake and be prepared to acknowledge it and where necessary apologise,” he said.
“Whenever I’ve looked back at the decisions that I have taken in the commission, I struggle to find any decision that I have taken that I regret. I look back at the decisions that I have taken some of them very difficult ...I think I would've taken the same decisions faced with the same situation again...”
One of the difficult decisions taken by the commission involved former president Jacob Zuma who was implicated by several witnesses into allegations abetting state capture. Zuma was jailed after he was found guilty of contempt for refusing to appear before the commission and answer questions.
Zondo said after four-and-a-half years since the commission was established he never thought the day would come when its work was wrapped up. “There was a time when I wasn’t sure that this day would come but I am very glad that it has. It is a day when I have the honour and privilege to hand over to the president the final parts of the commission’s report.”
The commission heard evidence from more than 300 witnesses and has produced reports covering some state-owned entities including Eskom, Transnet, Denel and Prasa among others who were mired in allegations of capture.
On Wednesday Zondo submitted the final volumes of the report which covered investigations into the SABC, state security, parliamentary oversight, how money obtained through state capture was moved outside the country, evidence relating to the ANC, Ramaphosa's evidence and the Gupta plane landing at the Waterkloof airforce base.
Zondo said there was a limit to what the commission could do given the resources and time at its disposal. He said it was unable to fully investigate the role of law enforcement agencies in state capture.
“We did commence with investigation into law enforcement agencies. I had a team that was investigating that and after quite some time, it became clear to us that it would require a lot more time than we had thought to investigate properly such matters,” he said.
The release of the report was preceded by speculation after Zondo said during interviews of justice Mandisa Maya for the position of deputy chief justice earlier in the week that he took a call from Ramaphosa.
Ramaphosa said the discussion between the two of them came after Zondo realised that he was not going to make the time which he had promised for the handover of the report.
“One has to take both of us at our word in that we’ve dealt with each other with a great deal of integrity, not once ever discussing the substance of work that the chief justice was doing, not once discussing the evidence which I gave in the commission…,” Ramaphosa said.
“He could have made a negative finding against me, which I would accept...that there was any way that the chief justice and I could have discussed the substance of the work is way below the chief justice.”
● For reports on the inquiry findings go to www.sowetanlive.co.za
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