State Capture Inquiry Adjourns Over Zuma Team Concerns about Questions

JOHANNESBURG – The inquiry into state capture was adjourned early today until Friday after former president Jacob Zuma’s legal team raised concerns about the kind of questions he was being asked, claiming he had been brought to the inquiry under false pretenses and he would reconsider his participation in the inquiry.

Inquiry leader Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo said the legal teams for the commission, under Paul Pretorius, and for Zuma would meet tomorrow to try and find a way forward that would deal with the concerns of Zuma’s team but not compromise the duties of the commission’s legal team.

Today was the third day of Zuma’s appearance at the inquiry, and he was expected to be there until Friday.

The problems began in the morning when Pretorius started going into the details of the controversial appointment to Transnet in 2009 of Siyabonga Gama – widely regarded as part of the group that sank the state-owned enterprise and made deals that benefited the Guptas – even though the board had unanimously ruled him out, saying he was unfit for the job.

In earlier evidence to the inquiry, former Minister of Public Enterprises Barbara Hogan said Zuma had pressured her to appoint Gama, but Zuma said today he had nothing to do with the appointment. When Pretorius went into details of a subsequent report about the procedure to be followed appointing the CEOs at state-owned enterprises, his lawyer Muzi Sikhakhane interrupted and said Zuma was being questioned about details and evidence that had been given by previous witnesses and not asked for his own version of events. He believed that Zuma had been brought to the inquiry under false pretenses. and he said he was rethinking the wisdom of having agreed to Zuma appearing at the inquiry.

Sikhakhane requested an adjournment so that his client to reconsider his options. After the adjournment, Zondo said it had been agreed between the teams that they would meet tomorrow to find a way forward that would satisfy both sides.