The Public Protector (PP), Adv. Busisiwe Mkhwebane, believes the Zondo Commission is at risk of wasting taxpayers’ money if he continues to delay to finish his job.
Mkhwebane said in a statement on Sunday by her spokesman, Oupa Segalwe, that the commission did not apply the OB’s affirmative recommendations completely.
The Zondo Commission was set up after Mkhwebane’s predecessor, Adv. Thuli Madonsela, in her state capture report, recommended that state hijacking be investigated by a commission. She recommended that the commission complete its work within 180 days.
The commission has already begun its session in 2018, chaired by Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, but needs more time to complete its work.
Zondo recently approached the Pretoria High Court to ask for a further 10-month extension.
The court’s ruling in the case is still reserved.
R1 billion in tax money
Mkwebane believes that if the commission fails to complete its work in 2020, the exercise would likely have paid taxpayers R1 billion by that point.
“It will be even worse if the public is robbed of billions more in the name of correcting the alleged looting of the state bursary,” she says.
Commission spokesman Mbuyiselo Stemela did not immediately respond to inquiries on Sunday.
Zondo was ordered to include his findings in a report which he then presented to Pres. Cyril Ramaphosa.
