THE state capture commission of inquiry has announced that President Cyril Ramaphosa will complete his testimony next week.
The president is due to appear at the commission on 11 and 12 August.
The commission released a statement on Monday confirming that Ramaphosa first complete testimony related to his time as president and deputy president of the ANC.
Ramaphosa would then face questions about his role as deputy president of the country in his capacity as the Leader of Government Business in Parliament.
“The public is hereby notified that the Chairperson of the Commission has fixed 11 and 12 August 2021 as the dates when President Ramaphosa will appear before the Commission again to give evidence and be questioned on matters falling within the terms of reference of the Commission,” the commission said in its statement.
“On 11 and 12 August the President will first complete his evidence relating to the ANC in his capacity as the current President and former Deputy President of the party and thereafter give evidence and be questioned in his capacity as the current President and former Deputy President of the country.”
Appearing at the commission in April, Ramaphosa said government should have done more to prevent corruption under his predecessor Jacob Zuma.
The commission is probing allegations of corruption during Zuma’s nine years in power, including that Zuma allowed businessmen close to him – brothers Atul, Ajay and Rajesh Gupta – to influence policy and win lucrative government contracts.
Zuma and the Guptas have repeatedly denied the allegations against them.
Ramaphosa told the inquiry it took time for the ANC to recognise high-level corruption during the period, but that he would not try to “make excuses or to defend the indefensible”.
“We all acknowledge that the organisation could and should have done more to prevent the abuse of power and the misappropriation of resources that defined the era of state capture,” he said.
Ramaphosa, the ANC’s deputy leader from 2012 to 2017 and deputy president from 2014 until 2018, has made the fight against corruption one of his calling cards.
After he won a closely fought battle for the ANC leadership against Zuma’s ex-wife in December 2017, his allies in the party engineered Zuma’s ouster, allowing him to take over as head of state in February 2018, before Zuma’s second five-year term was due to end.
- Inside Politics
