THE State Capture commission chairperson Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo has responded to allegations he has a family link to former President Jacob Zuma.
Zuma has claimed in recent days that these relations were responsible for Zondo’s ‘bias disposition’ towards him.
In a statement issued on Thursday, Zondo said in the early 1990s, while still practising as a lawyer in KwaZulu Natal, he fathered a child with the sister of Zuma’s estranged wife, Thobeka Madiba.
He said the relationship ended a few years later and that the issue has not affected how he carries out his duties as a judge.
“To my knowledge, Mr Zuma had no relationship with Ms Thobeka Madiba in the mid-1990s. That Mr Zuma happened to marry the sister of a woman with whom I had had a relationship that ended so many years before that marriage has never had any bearing on the execution of my judicial functions in the many matters involving Mr Zuma in which I have sat as a Justice of the Constitutional Court since 2012 nor does it have any bearing on the execution of my duties as Chairperson of the Commission,” Zondo said in the statement.
He said in the past Zuma never raised an objection when he heard matters involving him.
“Indeed, in none of the many matters involving Mr Zuma in which I have sat in the past has Mr Zuma ever expressed any complaint or concern, nor has he ever brought an application for my recusal.’’
Zondo was not clear whether he would recuse himself when he appears before the commission later next month.
“I thought it is necessary to bring the above clarification but I do not at this stage intend to address any of the other allegations made in Mr Zuma’s attorney’s letter, as I will deal with them if and when Mr Zuma’s application for my recusal is lodged.”
Meanwhile, Thobeka Madiba has filed a divorce case against the former president at the Pietermariztburg High Court.
The couple, who wed in a traditional ceremony in Nkandla in 2010, separated last year.
This after she was barred from entering the compound after being accused of taking Zuma’s sim cards without his permission when he was in Havana, Cuba, for medical treatment.
(COMPILED BY INSIDE POLITICS STAFF)
