Jacob Zuma will not undergo a lie detector test at Zondo commission

Former president Jacob Zuma. Photo: Michele Spatari / Pool via AP

Former president Jacob Zuma. Photo: Michele Spatari / Pool via AP

Published Jan 9, 2020

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Kimberley - Former president Jacob Zuma will not undergo a public lie detector test to prove his claims that one of his former ministers, Ngoako Ramatlhodi, was an apartheid spy recruited in the 1980s while studying in Lesotho.

Ramatlhodi, the former mineral resources and public administration minister, told Independent Media on Thursday afternoon in Kimberley that his bid to have Zuma dragged back to the state capture commission did not yield the desired results. 

The Judge Raymond Zondo led commission was where he made the spy allegations and Ramatlhodi wanted him to be forced to undergo a public lie detector test. He was told this would not happen. 

Ramatlhodi exclusively told Independent Media that he wrote to the commission a few weeks after the claims were made in the early July last year, but the commission said it does not have a provision to force witnesses who had come before it to do that. 

Instead, Ramatlhodi said, the commission asked him to prepare a sworn affidavit to state his side of the story and the content of the affidavit was supposed to be put before Zuma during his aborted appearance which was first billed for mid-November last year. 

His second appearance which was billed for early December was also postponed when Zuma cited that he needed time to prepare papers for his corruption trial permanent stay of prosecution application. 

“They said they don’t do lie detectors (but) that I should make an affidavit (to) challenge him to prove what he has said, which I have done... No, they haven’t given us dates because he should have done that a while ago but then he kept on postponing (his appearance),” Ramatlhodi said. 

He said he was not going to personally cross-examine Zuma, but the ex-president would be given the affidavit and when he appears before the commission, he would be asked to respond to the spy allegations he made. 

However, owing to time constraints, the claims by Ramathlodi could not be verified with Reverend Mbuyiselo Stemela, the spokesperson of the commission. The private office of Zuma was also yet to comment.

Ramatlhodi was not the only person who was named by Zuma as an alleged apartheid spy. He also named his former communications minister, General Siphiwe Nyanda as another alleged spy. Nyanda is reportedly demanding a financial compensation of R800 000 from Zuma. 

* The story will be updated as soon as comments from the commission and Zuma’s office are received.

Political Bureau

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