MEDIA STATEMENT
TO ALL MEDIA/NEWS EDITORS
10 OCTOBER 2016
PRESIDENT ZUMA REQUESTS THE PUBLIC PROTECTOR TO PROVIDE HIM WITH NAMES OF
WITNESSES INTERVIEWED AND THE TRANSCRIPTS OF TESTIMONY
President Jacob Zuma has written to the Public Protector, Advocate Thuli
Madonsela, requesting her to allow him or his legal representative to
question other witnesses, determined by the Public Protector, who have
appeared before Public Protector.
President Zuma was given two days before the meeting that took place on
Thursday, 06 October 2016, to prepare and to give evidence on a whole range
of matters which exceeded the ambit of the stated request for the meeting.
He is thus of the view that this short notice did not take into account the
provisions of Section 7(9) of the Public Protector Act which states that the
implicated person (the President in this case) or his legal representative
is entitled to question other witnesses, determined by the Public Protector,
who have appeared before Public Protector.
In addition, the Public Protector Act allows any person who appears before
the Public Protector as a witness to be assisted by an advocate or an
attorney and to peruse such documents and records in possession of the
Public Protector relevant to the investigation in question.
The President has submitted that in adherence to the audi alteram partem
rule, he as an implicated person is entitled to the documents and records
gathered in the course of the investigation, to enable him to prepare his
evidence. The President is also entitled to question witnesses, assisted by
a legal representative.
President Zuma has also submitted that as the Constitutional Court has
previously held that the remedial actions taken by the Public Protector are
binding, it is imperative that the President be given a full opportunity to
be heard in order to avoid remedial actions that can be made, based on
evidence not tested by him as the implicated person in the investigation.
In light of the fact that the purpose of the meeting of 6 October 2016
changed from a briefing session as earlier envisaged into a Notice in terms
of section 7(9) of the Public Protector Act, the Presidency confirms that
when the President met with the Public Protector on that day, the President
asked that the meeting be postponed so that he can be provided with the
relevant documents and records and where necessary be allowed to question
the witnesses who have already testified before the Public Protector. The
Public Protector disagreed with the request and instead offered to provide
the President with written questions to which the President will be required
to respond by an affidavit under oath.
The Public Protector has now provided the President with her written
questions.
After careful consideration, President Zuma is still of the view that he
must be provided with the list of witnesses who appeared before the Public
Protector, statements and/or affidavits as well as transcripts of any oral
testimony tendered in this investigation.
Furthermore, the President would want to exercise his right to question some
of the witnesses before responding to the written questions and adducing
evidence.
The Presidency deems the Public Protector's statement at the said meeting
that she was in a "hurry" to complete the investigation as ill-founded,
given the fact that:
. the investigation is not with respect "part-heard" and may well be
completed after the term of the current Public Protector, as is the case
with other pending investigations;
. the President's diary as was explained at the said meeting is
determined well in advance and therefore the truncated period simply does
not permit him to properly attend to the matter.
The Presidency has therefore requested an undertaking by the Public
Protector on or before close of business tomorrow, 11 October 2016, that her
office will not conclude the investigation and issue any report until:
1. all the evidence received by the Public Protector
insofar as it implicates the President or calls upon him to tender an
explanation is made available to him;
2. the President is afforded an opportunity to question
the witnesses who have tendered such evidence referred to above;
3. the President has been afforded a proper opportunity
to tender his evidence as discussed above.
Enquiries: Dr Bongani Ngqulunga on 082 308 9373 or
<mailto:[email protected]> [email protected]
Issued by: The Presidency
Pretoria
<http://www.thepresidency.gov.za> www.thepresidency.gov.za
__________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature
database 14256 (20161010) __________
The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus.
http://www.eset.com
--
--
You are subscribed. This footer can help you.
Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this
message.
You can visit the group WEB SITE at
http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options,
pages, files and membership.
To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You
don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put
anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this
address (repeat): [email protected] .
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"YCLSA Discussion Forum" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email
to [email protected].
To post to this group, send an email to [email protected].
Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum.
To view this discussion on the web, visit
https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/yclsa-eom-forum/000c01d2231a%246a5605b0%243f021110%24%40com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
