Former President Jacob Zuma has claimed some judges helped President Cyril Ramaphosa hide “bribes” allegedly obtained to win the ANC’s 2017 national conference held at NASREC, Johannesburg.
Zuma makes the claim in a statement released on Monday night. He was reacting to Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo’s announcement earlier on Monday that the state capture commission of inquiry will seek a prison sentence against him for alleged contempt of court.
Zondo’s announcement followed Zuma’s no-show at the inquiry which, Zondo said, constituted a defiance of the inquiry’s summons and a Constitutional Court order against Zuma.
“The commission will approach the Constitutional Court and ask it to impose a term of imprisonment on Mr Zuma if it finds that he’s guilty of contempt of court. It will be up to the court what it considers appropriate,” Zondo said.
‘Political propaganda’
However, in his statement, Zuma doubled down on his vow not to cooperate with the commission, accusing Zondo of propagating “political propaganda” against him.
He added, “Now that it seems that my role in the commission has come to an end, I wait to face the sentence to be issued by the Constitutional Court.
“Accordingly, I stand by my statement of 1 February 2021 and no amount of intimidation or blackmail will change my position, as I firmly believe that we should never allow for the establishment of a judiciary in which justice, fairness and due process are discretionary and are exclusively preserved for certain litigants and not others.”
The ex-President accused Zondo of displaying “questionable judicial integrity, independence and open-mindedness,” adding that he was protesting not against the law or Constitutional Court, but “its abuse by a few judges.”
“I protest against those in the judiciary that have become an extension of political forces that seek to destroy and control our country,” Zuma said, adding that judges “should never become agents of ruling classes in society.”
CR17 sealed records
Seemingly to emphasise his point, Zuma cited the sealing of CR17 campaign fundraising records associated with Ramaphosa’s successful bid to become ANC President in 2017.
He wrote, “We sit with some judges who have assisted the incumbent President to hide from society what on the face of it seem to be bribes obtained in order to win an internal ANC election.
“We sit with some judges who sealed those records simply because such records may reveal that some of them, while presiding in our courts, have had their hands filled with the proverbial 30 pieces of silver.”
Zuma added that the judiciary has “a number of men and women of integrity,” but insisted that some have been “captured to serve political ends and to undermine the constitution.” He nevertheless did not provide proof for his claims.