15 September 2022
Deputy President David Mabuza sidestepped a question on whether he agreed with President Cyril Ramaphosa that the Zondo Commission’s findings were not binding on government.
Mabuza, answering questions in the National Assembly on Thursday afternoon, said that as leader of government business, he had previously “affirmed the centrality of this institution” to hold the executive accountable.
He said Cabinet members were individually and collectively accountable to the National Assembly, and it was their constitutional duty to assist the House to process the Zondo Commission’s report.
He said, as deputy president, he didn’t have the power to discipline members of the executive implicated in the report, but Ramaphosa did.
“The National Assembly can be assured of the full commitment of the executive under the leadership of the President in the processing of the findings of the State Capture Commission,” Mabuza said.
Among the Zondo Commission’s scathing findings against the ANC was that its policy of cadre deployment contributed to state capture and that it was unconstitutional and unlawful.
Weeks before the final report was published, the DA approached the High Court to ask that the policy be declared unconstitutional and unlawful.
In his responding affidavit, in his capacity as the president of the country rather than the ANC, Ramaphosa argued that the recommendations weren’t binding, but were there to “assist [him], as president of the country, with the issues at the heart of this investigation”.
