Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo has indicated that the commission of inquiry into state capture would soon conduct its hearings into the evenings as it tries to ensure that its work is completed on time.
This comes as Justice Zondo, who chairs the commission, granted applications for postponements by former Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) Robert McBride and advocate JP Pretorius.
Pretorius was scheduled to give evidence and cross-examine McBride and IPID investigator Innocent Kuba and former KwaZulu-Natal Hawks head Johan Booysen on their evidence before the commission.
Zondo said while he was granting postponements where necessary, the commission had a very limited lifespan left and that it needed to finish its work.
“Because of our determination to try and finish the work that we have in the commission within the time that we have, we may have a situation soon where we require people to appear in what I call our evening sessions. That means that you might not be required to present yourself at 9am or 10am but maybe at 4pm and when the witness who was giving evidence for the day is done, we start with somebody,” Justice Zondo said.
Justice Zondo said the change could stretch the duration of the commission up to 7:00pm.
“As I grant postponements I just want people to understand that they might find that we are in that situation. Obviously, the ideal thing would be to deal with the witness who can finish his or her evidence that evening but if they can’t finish we will have to find a way,” he said.
He said the commission’s attempt to find extra time could also see its proceeding starting earlier than normal.
The commission ends in March 2021.
IOL