Zondo must stay put at inquiry

State capture commission chair Raymond Zondo will this week decide whether to recuse himself as applied for by former president Jacob Zuma.

Zuma’s lawyer advocate Muzi Sikhakhane made a spirited appeal on Monday claiming that with Zondo at the helm, the commission was not a space in which Zuma felt he would be treated fairly.

Sikhakhane questioned the integrity of the commission, making bizarre claims backed up by no evidence on how it had conducted its work. He claimed for example that the commission's order of witnesses when it began two years ago was problematic as it elevated what he said were “star witnesses” who presented Zuma as some sort of villain.

This was correctly disputed by the commission’s evidence leader Paul Pretorius, who pointed out that in fact Zuma was invited to give evidence at the commission back in 2018 already. He has so far supplied no affidavit to give his side of the story.

Importantly, Sikhakhane centred his arguments of alleged bias by Zondo on the claim that the deputy chief justice had at times appeared to believe the version of anti-Zuma witnesses and therefore fed a narrative that Zuma was guilty of undue interference in the running of state entities.

As Pretorius pointed out, this showed a lack of appreciation of Zondo’s role, which is not one of a passive listener but inquisitorial in nature.

Many often point out that because it was Zuma himself who established the commission, it is ironic that he appears to be stonewalling its work.

To be fair, it cannot be said that Zuma was fully behind the commission even when he established it. He was legally compelled to do so. That it went on to expose the depth of his rogue presidency is all the more reason why he is determined to fight it to the end.

On the basis of what Sikhakhane presented on Monday, we believe there is no sound reason why Zondo should recuse himself.

Doing so would effectively give in to attempts to collapse its work and would severely damage public trust in such institutions of accountability.