Forget the much-punted lie that “I want my day in court”. Zuma is just not predisposed to answering questions, writes Don Makatile.
Shifty. If you were to look up this word, you’d be confronted by its newer meaning: Zuma.
A more apt description of President Jacob Zuma is yet to be coined.
This much was revealed to the fly on the wall on Thursday, October 6 when erstwhile public protector Thuli Madonsela met with President Zuma to seek his version of events around the violation of the executive ethics code as claimed by Deputy Finance Minister Mcebisi Jonas and former parliamentarian Vytjie Mentor’s alleged job offers by the adventurous Gupta family.
Zuma is not in the habit of answering questions. Forget his trademark refrain in Parliament: “I have already answered that question.” The truth is that Zuma does not answer any, especially the asked.
Before kicking off the hearing, Madonsela was at pains to explain: “Ordinarily in investigations like this we require that people speak for themselves, because it says assisted’ and then the lawyers clarify when there are legal issues.”
But true to his (shifty) nature Zuma, accompanied by lawyer Michael Hulley and adviser in the Presidency advocate Bonisiwe Makhene, was not going to reinvent himself and be suddenly forthcoming.
Added to his singing and dancing skills, Zuma has another penchant - suffering bouts of convenient amnesia.
Madonsela had to remind him that an audience with him was sought in a notification she sent to him on March 22 and another on September 13, part of which read: “I would like to have a meeting with you to brief you about the investigation into allegations of state capture. The meeting will also enable me to afford you an opportunity to answer to the allegations made against you.”
And prior to the hearing, on October 2, Madonsela dispatched a 20-page letter to Zuma detailing allegations against him.
Madonsela’s meticulous preparedness for the hearing was met with Zuma’s apparent daze, like he’d just stepped out from under a rock.
Four hours were wasted by Hulley deflecting questions his client should have answered. When he gets the chance to open his mouth, Zuma prefers it closed.
Forget the much-punted lie that “I want my day in court”. Zuma is just not predisposed to answering questions - and the nature of the courts is that questions are asked.
The Sunday Independent