Zondo asks for another extension for final state capture report

Chief justice Raymond Zondo has urgently approached the high court for another extension for the final delivery of the state capture commission report — this time to June 15.

The final instalment of the report was, by court order, due at the end of April. But in court papers filed in the Pretoria high court on Friday, Zondo said the commission would not be able to deliver all the outstanding sections of the report by that time.

However, part 4 of the report would be delivered “some time today or this evening or tomorrow morning”.

Part 4 would cover “the Capture of Eskom; the Attempted Capture of the National Treasury; EOH and the City of Johannesburg; Alexcor; Closure of the Gupta Bank Accounts; the Free State Asbestos Project Debacle; and the Free State R1bn Housing Project Debacle”. 

He said part 4 would run to about 1,114 pages.

What remained after part 4 was the SABC; Prasa; the Waterkloof landing; SSA; state capture chapter; Estina; and a summary of the report.

Zondo said the topics in part 4 had “given us serious challenges in terms of getting drafts to reach a point where I am happy with them. They have taken us about five weeks more than what I thought they would take us.”

He had also been delayed by electoral commission interviews and judicial service commission interviews, he said. 

He said the delays so far were not a result of neglecting the work of the commission but because “over three years the commission heard a lot of important evidence that needs to be analysed and taken into account”. 

The commission was “adamant that it will do its work properly until it has completed its report”, said Zondo.

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