#StateCapture: Court rules Zuma must appoint inquiry

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Johannesburg - The Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, delivered another scathing judgment when it dismissed President Jacob Zuma's application to review former Public Protector Thuli Madonsela's State Capture report. Judge President Dunstan Mlambo delivered the unanimous judgment rejecting Zuma's bid to have the report that found widespread impropriety by his son Duduzane and friends, the controversial Gupta family and several bosses of state-owned entities and Cabinet reviewed.

"None of the grounds of review have any merit," Mlambo said.



Zuma had challenged the right of the former Public Protector to call for a judicial inquiry and the appointment of a judge to head it by the Chief Justice. Zuma said it was his prerogative to set up such an inquiry.





On Wednesday Mlambo directed Zuma to appoint a commission of inquiry headed by a judge chosen by Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng within 30 days.





He described Zuma's application as a clear non-starter and said that the president was ill-advised and reckless to pursue a review of Madonsela's report.





According to Mlambo, the court case delayed the resolution of state capture allegations.





"In our view, there was no justifiable basis to ignore state capture and launch the review," he said.





The court order must be delivered to Zuma and Mogoeng within five days.





The court also slapped Zuma with a personal costs order for the second time following an earlier similar order for his futile attempt to stop the release of Madonsela's report.





Earlier on Wednesday, the court ruled that Zuma be personally held liable for the costs of his court bid to interdict the release of the State Capture report.

In his judgment, Mlambo said the stance adopted by Zuma in 2016 on the status of the report was "completely unreasonable".

Mlambo said there was no basis for Zuma's application to interdict the release of the report.

"The president's persistence to continue with the application [for an interdict against the public protector] amounts to abuse of the judicial process," said Mlambo. "He is ordered to personally pay the costs."

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Read more: #StateCapture: Court rules Zuma must pay