Cape Town – March 25 has been set as the date when the Constitutional Court will hear an application by the state capture inquiry to have former president Jacob Zuma declared to be in contempt of court.
The commission launched the application last week after Zuma failed to appear before it. It wants the former president to be jailed for defying two summons sent to him in January and February.
The Concourt said on Monday Zuma, the minister of police and the national police commissioner must file answering papers, if any, by March 8.
The court directed that written submissions must be lodged by the commission on or before March 12 and by the respondents on or before March 19. It said the hearing would take place on a virtual platform.
Commission secretary Professor Itumeleng Mosala said in his application that Zuma had committed a number of contemptuous acts, among others, making “scurrilous statements” against the Concourt and the judiciary.
It is still unclear whether Zuma, who left to visit the kingdom of Eswatini on Sunday, had instructed his lawyers to act or if he would not oppose the application.
He previously said he was ready to be jailed and that his defiance was a political statement against an unjust judiciary system he alleges is persecuting him for political reasons.
The commission is probing allegations of state capture during the Zuma presidency between 2009 and 2018. It wants him to answer allegations implicating him in allowing the Gupta family to co-rule.
The Jacob Zuma Foundation issued a statement today attacking the Zondo Commission and its chairperson, Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo.
The foundation alleged that Justice Zondo, who Zuma wanted to recuse himself, was continuing with his “agenda” against the former president.
The statement of the foundation was triggered by Mosala’s submission, where he asked the Concourt to be firm when it decides to penalise Zuma for his defiance.
"This desperation of the Deputy Chief Justice Zondo, abusing his position as the second in charge in the Constitutional Court, instructing his subordinates to bend the laws of the country, is unprecedented.
’’He ignores process and jurisdictions as prescribed in law, just to ensure that the Zuma state capture commission of inquiry finds (former) president Zuma guilty by hook or crook to deliver him to some hidden masters.
"The 1947 act talks about six months imprisonment, or a £55 fine, not the two years imprisonment that the honourable judge, who is chairing the commission alone, suggests," the foundation said.
The foundation repeated allegations made by Zuma on February 1 that Justice Zondo is treating the former president in the way the apartheid government treated former PAC leader Robert Sobukwe.
Commission spokesperson Reverend Mbuyiselo Stemela did not respond to the claims made by the foundation.
IOL