President Zuma.
Image: SABC
The President Jacob Zuma announced on Friday that he would be taking the remedial action that is contained in the State of Capture report that was presented by former Public Protector, Thuli Madonsela, on judicial review.
Just before she left office in October of 2016, Advocate Thuli Madonsela produced and presented the report which was entitled “The State of Capture” in which she outlined how the state of South Africa had been captured by the wealthy Gupta family, which is reportedly close to President Zuma. In this report, Madonsela and her team sought to outline how the state had been compromised by the dealings that were happening between Zuma and the wealthy Indian family. She also sought to outline how the president had flouted the law and following this, had made several recommendations to redress the situation. The former Ombudsman further suggested that Zuma needed to establish a commission of enquiry into the issues of state capture. She recommended that the chairperson of the commission be appointed by Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng and that it should be able to complete its work within six months, adding that the commission needed to pin point instances where Zuma had broken the law and there was need to “probe possible cause for criminal charges contained in the report.”
In the statement that was issued by the Presidency on Friday, the president said the basis of his actions would be set out in the judicial review application. The statement further said that the legal team was currently working on the review application to be served and filed within the time periods that were prescribed by the law. “The Promotion of Administrative Justice Act 3 of 2000 provides that any proceedings for judicial review must be instituted without unreasonable delay and not later than 180 days from the date that the reviewable action was concluded,” the statement said. This effectively means that he will be contesting what Madonsela has recommended and his team will be setting out what action he will be taking to redress the situation of State Capture.
