EFF welcomes the High Court judgment that Chief Justice must appoint judge in State Capture Commission of Inquiry
13 December 2017
The EFF welcomes the outcomes of the Gauteng North High Court which ruled that it must be the Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng, as opposed to Zuma, who must appoint the Judge in the State of Capture Judicial Commission of Enquiry. We welcome this as a victory for accountability and proper administration of justice since this enquiry is meant to investigate Jacob Zuma for alleged corruption. It is therefore rational that he cannot appoint a judge in a commission investigation him as it creates a conflict of interest.
The EFF calls on Zuma to immediately comply with the judgement and not waste any more time and resources challenging the outcome. We further welcome the dismissal of his review with costs personally liable to him. This is crucial because Zuma should have known the personal nature of his application that in essence, he was using state resources to try and stop remedial action that has to do with his personal involvement in corruption. The very application to review the remedial action of the public protector comes nothing short of embarrassing as it proves the very fact of how conflicted he is.
We reiterate our call for Zuma to step down as president of the country; not only has he violated the constitution, lies to the court, but he is using state resources to try and stay away from being held accountable for his corrupt actions.
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EFF welcomes the judgement that Zuma must pay costs personally
The EFF welcomes the judgement of the North Gauteng High Court that Zuma must personally pay the legal costs in the case where he sought to stop the publication of Public Protectors' State of Capture report.
We welcome this damning judgement as a victory of accountability because many public representatives use public resources to defend personal interests and not those of the state or the public. The important lesson the court is teaching is that public representatives must always distinguish between personal and public interests. This separation becomes blurred when those who rule are either dictators or corrupt individuals seeking to protect or defend wrongdoing by using taxpayers' money to engage in expensive litigation.
Zuma is one individual who has used taxpayers money to defend personal wrongdoing. He has engaged in expensive litigation not to defend public interest or even state interest, but persona. This was so in matters like that of Nkandla where he used taxpayers money to challenge Public Protectors remedial action that he must personally pay back the money inappropriately used to build him a mansion.
We call on Zuma to immediately comply with the directive of the court and personally pay all the costs of the litigation. He must waist no time and no single taxpayers' cent to appeal a clear and cogent judgment.
Statements issued by Mbuyiseni Quintin Ndlozi, national spokesperson, EFF, 13 December 2017
