Ramaphosa likely to be the last witness to testify at Zondo commission
President Cyril Ramaphosa is likely to be the last witness to appear before the State Capture Commission of Inquiry when he returns to complete his evidence next week.
On Tuesday, Chairperson of the Commission, Deputy Chief Justice (DCJ) Raymond Zondo announced that Ramaphosa's second appearance has been scheduled for the 31st of May 2021 and the 1st of June 2021.
Ramaphosa is due to appear in his capacity as the President of the country.
However, Zondo says Rampahosa will first have to answer to the issues that he couldn't respond to in his first appearance in his capacity as the President of the African National Congress (ANC) when he appeared before the Commission in April.
"It is the intention of the commission that his appearance will for all intense and purposes subject to two qualifications be the last appearance or will mark the last witness to give oral evidence before the commission. The Commission is trying its best to wrap up oral evidence, I said it will be subject to two qualifications and I will deal with those next week after he has concluded his evidence."
"The commission is mindful of the fact that there are some applications for leave to cross-examine that have not been deposed of yet, these will be given due consideration and where the interest of the integrity of the work of the commission and the interest of all concerned indicate that some exceptions must be made and some witnesses must still be called, that will be looked at, but on the whole, the commission wishes to wrap up oral evidence because, by end of the President's evidence, it would have covered all the important evidence related to matters that were included in the Public Protector’s report which gave rise to this commission," said Zondo.
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The commission had anticipated completing oral evidence in March.
Zondo says they will approach the High Court to request another extension to prepare the final report.
"In the first application to the High Court for the extension for the term of the Commission from the end of March to the end of June, I had indicated the month of April, May and June would be used for the preparation of the report. That assessment was made in good faith and everyone knows how the Commission has been working hard holding double sessions, day and evening sessions to try and finish our work but we did not succeed in completing oral evidence by end of March."
"Everyone knows if we had ended oral evidence by end of March there was really important evidence that was held in April relating to the State Security Agency that the nation needed to hear," concluded Zondo.
