Zondo Commission resumes proceedings on Thursday

WHILE the deadline closes in on Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo to wrap up on proceedings at the state capture inquiry, the commission is expected to resume on Thursday following more than a week of no hearings.

The Commission of Inquiry into State Capture is expected to hear Eskom related evidence from former Glencore chief executive officer Clinton Ephron.

The commission halted hearings after it heard evidence from former Transnet chief financial officer, Gary Pita last Tuesday.

Justice Zondo announced there would be no hearings for last week and most of this week, “simply because the commission is wrapping up the hearing of oral evidence”.

He said the commission should have concluded its oral evidence by the end of March but that was not possible. However, it was now “quite close” to wrapping it up.

Zondo said while there were not many witnesses left to give evidence, President Cyril Ramaphosa was still expected to return to the commission before the end of the month.

“There will be some few identified witnesses who will give evidence before the end of June. There are not many ˗ one of them is, of course, the president whose appearance was adjourned recently,” he said.

He said while the commission halted hearings in the past week, various personnel were busy with work that needed to be done in relation to the preparation of summaries of evidence.

Justice Zondo assured the commission was serious about meeting its end of June extended deadline and even though there were no hearings, “there is work happening behind the scenes”.

The commission was expected to resume hearings at 10am on Thursday.