Zondo: Zuma and I are not friends
Deputy Chief Justice
Raymond Zondo says
he doesn't have a personal relationship with former president Jacob Zuma.
“Although Mr. Zuma and I have a cordial relationship and over the years interacted with each other pleasantly wherever we met, mostly at government functions, Mr Zuma’s statement that we are friends is not accurate,” Zondo said.
Zuma's making an application for the Zondo Commission Chair to recuse himself. He filed an affidavit citing alleged bias.
Zondo delivered these opening remarks before proceedings got under way.
“Mr. Zuma says the personal relationship between the two of us is such that I should have declined my appointment as chairperson of the commission and it renders me bias against him,” Zondo said.
“In 2011 as the judge of the High Court in Pretoria, I had an application concerning a contested mining right, where one of contesting companies belonged in part to Mr. Duduzane Zuma, Mr. Jacob Zuma’s son.”
“I had full argument in that matter and gave judgement against others the company in which Duduzane Zuma had an interest.
There was never a complaint that I should have recused myself in that matter,” Zondo remarked.
Meanwhile, Zuma's counsel has argued the narrative is that the former president sits as an accused before the state capture commission.
“I want to walk with you and look at your comments from the perspective from a person who sits watched by millions of people who thinks he symbolizes corruption,” Zuma's counsel ,Advocate Muzi Sikhakhane said.
“The context I am giving you, is a Mr. Zuma, a lot of the people sitting here, some journalists, is the narrative, here is the man that has messed up our country. That narrative, I don’t want to get into its merits is the context Mr. Zuma views this environment,” Sikhakhane said.
