Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo says that while relations between him and former President Jacob Zuma have been cordial over the years, they are not friends as stated by Zuma.
Zondo was speaking at the commencement of the application filed by Zuma that Zondo recuse himself from hearing his testimony at the State Capture Commission.
Zuma filed the recusal application last week claiming that family ties he has with Zondo, may cloud the deputy Chief Justice’s judgment as chair of the inquiry. Zondo outlining his position.
“Mr Zuma has never been to any of the houses I have lived with my family since the early 1990s and I have never invited him. He only met my wife at the opening of Parliament and other government functions. He has also not been to any of the houses that I have lived in Gauteng over the last 24/25 years since my appointment as a Judge in 1997. Mr Zuma and I do not socialise and have never socialised together. I accept that there are functions, special government functions that he attended and I attended and that at such occasions we greeted each other and would have brief conversations.”
Deputy Chief Justice Zondo has rejected former President Zuma’s claims that he is biased against the former President because of their historical personal relationship.
In hearing the recusal application against him brought by Zuma, Zondo says that this is not the first time he has presided over a number of case concerning Zuma in the past.
“From November 2011 to May 2012 when I was an Acting Justice of the Constitutional Court and in the last 8 years since my appointment as Justice of the Constitutional Court I have sat in a number of matters which involved Mr Zuma as President in which the court has given judgments, sometimes against him and sometimes in his favour and Mr Zuma has never complained in all those years that I had a close relationship with him that disqualified me from sitting in matters in which he was involved.”
Zuma vs Zondo| Experts label it bizarre and a desperate attempt to hide the truth:
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