Durban - President Jacob Zuma must decide who will head up the judicial commission of inquiry to investigate state capture, the African National Congress Youth League said on Thursday.
Slamming former Public Protector Thuli Madonsela’s report, titled “State of Capture”, which was released on Wednesday, the league’s KwaZulu-Natal provincial secretary Thanduxolo Sabelo said at a press conference in Durban that she had no right to determine who would head up the inquiry.
“She cannot dictate the constitutional rights of the president. It must be him who must do it,” said Sabelo.
In her report, Madonsela acknowledged that Zuma had the power to appoint commissions of inquiry, but referred to a recent case between the Economic Freedom Fighters and the Speaker of Parliament.
In that case Zuma had said: “I could not have carried out the evaluation myself lest I be accused of being judge and jury in my own case”.
And this was, she said in her report, the basis for saying that Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng should alone decide who would head the commission.
Sabelo slated Madonsela’s investigation as being too narrow.
He also accused Madonsela of working in collusion with opposition parties and big business interests.
The youth league leader suggested that the state had been captured by business magnate Johan Rupert and that current finance minister Pravin Gordhan only occupied his post because of Rupert’s intervention.
“The new finance minister was a second candidate. Business people went and recommended a change of a minister. Why not investigate that? Why is that not being investigated? Why Johan Rupert has an interest that Pravin Gordhan becomes Minister of Finance?”
Sabelo suggested that Madonsela had not wanted to investigate Rupert’s hold on the state because they had a close relationship.
“Could it be, because they have quite a close relationship, Thuli and Johan Rupert? We all know where she’s going to work next year? Who is the Chancellor of the university?”
Last month the University of Stellenbosch announced that Madonsela, whose seven-year term as Public Protector had come to an end, was appointed chairwoman of social justice in its law faculty.
Rupert is the institution’s chancellor.
Sabelo admitted that the league had not lodged a complaint with the Public Protector over their allegations that Rupert had captured the state.
“There is public knowledge. You don’t need an official complaint. They must investigate all and sundry.”
He said it was public knowledge that Gordhan’s appointment had been influenced by Rupert, among others.
“She seems to avoid to investigate Johan,” Sabelo said.
African News Agency