Johannesburg - Former president Jacob Zuma will continue his testimony at the Zondo Commission on Tuesday.
Zuma on Monday lived up to expectations, making explosive allegations at the commission of inquiry into state capture during his first day of testimony.
Zuma told the commission that former mineral resources minister Ngoako Ramatlhodi was a spy who was recruited when he was a student in Lesotho.
He also told the commission there were plans to kill him.
Zuma finally made his appearance before the commission, chaired by Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, after months of wrangling between his lawyers and the commission.
He has accused the commission of being biased against him and “lacking the requisite impartiality”.
WATCH FEED HERE
Zuma used his testimony, which spanned much of the morning, to raise issue with Ramatlhodi’s allegations that Zuma had auctioned off the country.
Ramatlhodi was removed as mineral resources minister in 2015 and moved to the public services department.
“What made comrade Ngoako behave the way he did here, saying I had auctioned the country, (saying that) in the NEC I just do what I like.
“He’s carrying out an instruction, he was recruited (for) when he was a student in Lesotho, to be a spy. And he finds it very comfortable to come here and say ‘this Zuma was a very good man. I’ve known him for years, what he is, but I’ve never shown it because I thought he would change’.”
On the attempts on his life, Zuma said there were people who felt that he needed to be dealt with.
“For me the matter is bigger than meets the eye. I have been respectful to comrades but I have reached the stage where I can’t take a back seat. I have survived people trying to kill me, people poisoning me on the instruction of their handlers. Finally I was poisoned, a very dangerous poison.
"All this emanates from people who made a plan in the beginning. They felt I am not disappearing and they must deal with me.”