STAFF REPORTER|
ANC DEPUTY Secretary General, Jessie Duarte, has issued an apology to the Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo following her shrill and emotional personal attack on the State Capture Commission of Inquiry.
Duarte’s apology comes after President Cyril Ramaphosa reaffirmed the ANC’s support for the Zondo Commission at the party’s national executive committee meeting on Saturday.
On Tuesday, Duarte wrote what has been widely described as a sickening’ and ‘ghastly’ op-ed in the Daily Maverick, in which she said damning testimonies at the commission of inquiry were an “onslaught against the people”.
But in her apology issued on Saturday night, Duarte said upon reflection, she believed that she owed the Deputy Chief Justice an ‘unconditional’ apology for her criticism of the commission and its work.
“The article appears to speak to your person directly and for this I humbly apologize to you. It was not my intention to show any disrespect towards you personally,” she said.
“The article which was published in the Daily Maverick was a reflection of several witnesses who appeared not to know that the current system of our National Assembly is premised on a proportional representation system, largely in line with the Westminster model which provides for a whippery system.”
She adds: “I wish to assure the Honourable Deputy Chief Justice of my deep respect for you and the work you are doing to bring to the fore the depth of malfeasance in the state and in the private sector.”
Duarte’s diatribe in the Daily Maverick comes after deputy transport minister Dikeledi Magadzi told the inquiry this week that she was proud to always follow the party line when voting on issues in Parliament and would always do it, even if the ANC was wrong in its instruction.
Writing in her article, Duarte said the testimonies provided at the Zondo Commission of Inquiry display a serious lack of appreciation of the role party caucuses play within a democracy such as ours.
“I have watched with interest how some opposition party leaders make decisions as they stand and talk. In the ANC, though, decisions on policy and how to execute policy go through a very arduous set of consultations which attempts to bring a broad consensus on any matter to the fore. Not exactly the dictatorial system described by a sceptical witness with little or no knowledge of the process by which decisions are made in the ANC,” said Duarte.
“More worrying is that democratic centralism is now the subject of a commission led by a judge who, with respect, practices [sic] his craft based on the narrow parameters of existing laws. One can only hope that the Zondo Commission is not going to turn our democracy into more of a neo-liberal concoction than it already is; where we all sound the same and do nothing real to transform our society.”
She further writes: “It is not the democratic system that is the problem – rather it is the fact that the ANC lives, the ANC leads and that our people, despite the ramblings of the few who testified at the commission, continue to put their hopes and trust in the ANC.”
(SOURCE: INSIDE POLITICS)
