Acting Chief Justice Raymond Zondo has explained to the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) a number of complaints lodged against his nomination for the Chief Justice position.
These include one by former Director General of the State Security Agency Arthur Fraser, who contends that Zondo is unfit for the top position because he failed to give him an opportunity to give his version of events at the State Capture Inquiry.
Fraser had been implicated by a number of witnesses as having abused secret service funds and engaged in illegal covert operations.
The former intelligence boss says Zondo sought to muzzle his evidence, which would have implicated sitting and former state presidents amongst other high profile individuals.
JSC Interviews I Previewing Acting Chief Justice Raymond Zondo’s interview:
However, Zondo says that Fraser could have, as early as 2018, applied to testify at the commission and when in the latter part of 2021 he complained he was not being allowed to do so, it was too late.
“So, if I was to have decided to call him after I got to know that this route of getting documents from SSA was not being pursued, I would have had to reopen the hearing of evidence maybe in October and then another complication with him he could implicate a lot of people who had previously not been implicated, which would then mean we should give those people opportunities and we were running out of time.”
Zondo says he stands by his decision to hold a media briefing to admonish the contents of the open letter penned by ANC NEC member Lindiwe Sisulu in January.
Sisulu asserted that the constitution is not transformative and accuses top judges of being mentally colonised.
Zondo has been critisised for holding the public briefing by some who have accused him of becoming embroiled in political matters.
However, Zondo says he restricted himself to the insults he believes she directed at the judiciary and consulted with other senior judges who advised him to respond.
He says he chose to do so via a briefing.
“The article had already been in the public domain for five or six days. So, I realised that I was going to take too long. Maybe it was only going to be out the following day. That’s when I decided to deal with it in the way in which I dealt with it, but I am satisfied that I was justified to deal with it the way I dealt with it. But I accept that someone else may have dealt with it in a different way, but as the head of the acting judiciary in that situation I made a judgement call.”
Earlier, the Acting Chief Justice said he knew it would be difficult to find someone to agree to chair the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture and that he would make a lot of enemies.
The Judicial Services Commission (JSC) is interviewing Zondo in Sandton, Johannesburg, for the position of the country’s Chief Justice.
He responded to a question posed by Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) Member of Parliament and JSC, Commissioner Narend Singh regarding the narrative that he was biased against former President Jacob Zuma and favoured President Cyril Ramaphosa.
