President Jacob Zuma has filed a second affidavit in his court bid to block the publishing of former Public Protector Thuli Madonsela’s state capture report.<\/p>\n
In the affadavit, Zuma is asking new Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane to confirm whether or not the report is final, and admitting that he was informed on 2 October that he was an implicated person in the report.<\/p>\n
According to the affidavit, Mkhwebane said she is not in a position to determine whether the report be released, or whether the president should be given more time to make represenations to be included in the the report.<\/p>\n
This was for the court to decide, she said.<\/p>\n
Zuma said that the DA’s application to stop the court process contained a contradiction, in that the party claims the state capture investigation is ongoing – but also that the report is finalised.<\/p>\n
The president maintains that he was not given enough time to answer the Public Protector’s questions on the matter, having only been provided with notice on 2 October 2016. It was then that he was notified that he was an “implicated person” in the investigation, he said.<\/p>\n
An “implicated person” is defined as someone who is shown to be party to a crime, Zuma said, and this changed what was supposed to be a briefing by the Public Protector on 6 October into a de facto interrogation.<\/p>\n
Madonsela’s report, which was to be published on 14 October 2016, is one of two reports on the subject of alleged state capture involving the controversial Gupta family.<\/p>\n
Zuma, along with cooperative governance minister Des van Rooyen, applied for an interdict to block the report from being published.<\/p>\n
The president said in a questions and answers session in Parliament on Tuesday: “I have a right, a legal right, to exercise my rights. This is what I\u2019ve done in terms of the public protector\u2019s report.<\/p>\n
\u201cI interdicted it because she was going to issue a report having not talked to me or asked me questions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The case will be heard next week.<\/p>\n
You can read Zuma’s full affidavit here<\/a><\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n The questions Zuma won\u2019t answer on state capture<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n These are the factions in the ANC that have been captured by Zuma<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n DA to table yet another motion of no confidence in Zuma<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\nMore on Zuma<\/h3>\n