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The Presidency’s spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya
The Presidency Spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya has reacted to comments made by former Chief Justice Raymond Zondo about the pain he felt when he had to swear in cabinet ministers who had serious state capture findings against them.
Zondo was speaking on the sidelines of the South African Council of Churches National Anti-Corruption summit in Johannesburg last week when he made the remarks.
The commission, which was established in 2018 and chaired by Zondo, exposed the rampant looting and capture of various state-owned enterprises.
In the commission’s final report, it called for further investigations and prosecutions of individuals involved and systemic reforms.
Magwenya says Zondo acknowledges the rights of individuals involved in the commission report, but until the report is concluded, the President cannot take punitive action against them.
“Former Chief Justice Zondo will appreciate that those individuals have rights accorded to them in terms of due process. What they’ve done correctly so, is to exercise those rights by taking the report under review, and until such time those matters are concluded, the President could not take any punitive action against them. Not appointing them as ministers when they qualify to be appointed as ministers on the basis of being implicated in the Zondo commission report would have been punitive.”
