‘No kid gloves for Ramaphosa,’ Zondo vows as he bids to head up judiciary

This according to acting Chief Justice Raymond Zondo. 

Zondo told the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) on Friday he had handled the report objectively, despite concerns he had showed bias towards Ramaphosa. 

Some of the concerns were ventilated by members of the JSC during Zondo’s interview for the Chief Justice position. 

Zondo is the fourth and final candidate vying for the judiciary’s top job - an appointment Ramaphosa will have the final word on, after recommendations from the JSC.  

Zondo denied deliberately delaying the release of the full report to give himself a fighting chance at the interviews.

“Truth is that in the work of the commission, the president gave evidence and like every witness, his evidence will be weighed up and assessed. I haven’t gone to dealing with most of his evidence and I will have to make findings. 

“With this job, you’ve got to do the job, make the findings you make, accept that you may make enemies but also accept that you may make findings against anybody, including the president.

“If there is enough evidence that justifies a finding against the president, that finding will be made but no finding will be made against the president if there is no evidence that justifies it. Just as with regard to former president [Jacob] Zuma - where I’ve made any finding against him I have done so because here is evidence but where there is no evidence, I will not make any finding against President Zuma if there is no evidence,” Zondo was at pains to explain. 

Both Ramaphosa and Zuma appeared before the commission at the chambers in Braamfontein, while their stints yielded different outcomes. 

Zuma’s appearance sparked a longstanding public spat with the country’s judiciary, culminating in an arrest for contempt of court. 

At the time, Zuma alleged Zondo had it out for him. 

Zondo denied this.  

Since then, Zuma has been implicated for having a part in the widespread corruption in government entities under his administration but findings against Ramaphosa were yet to be released.  

On Friday, Zondo added the claims of a delay had little to do with the perceived bias towards Ramaphosa.  

He flat-out denied being a part of Ramaphosa’s cabal.

“When I realised that we were not going to be able to finish the whole report, we looked at what portions of the report would be ready by the end of December and those happened to be the ones that were in part one and the ones that were in part two were closer to being ready.

“There was no conscience decision to say ‘oh no, that part must come later because of what’. 

“I think the reason why I never thought about it is because of how it came about that we decided that the report would be in three parts and how it came about was that for a number of months last year, we were working flat-out to complete the report by end of December because the order of the court that had grated us an extension had given us until the 31st of December. 

“I wanted to finish the work of this commission. I mean for four years I’ve been doing the work of this commission - I haven’t had much time to rest, I haven’t had much time for my family over the four year. If there is one thing I would like behind is to finish the work of the commission,” Zondo added. 

The state capture hearings began in August 2018. 

In more than 400 days of testimony, some 300 witnesses implicated 1,438 individuals and institutions.

Listen to Zondo below: 

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