The State Capture Commission has flexed its muscles against former president Jacob Zuma.
The Commission plans to lay further charges against Zuma for not appearing before the commission in January.
In a hard-hitting statement, the Commission also hit back at Zuma saying he thinks he is above the law for refusing to appear before it.
It states that Zuma refuses to comply with the Constitution and to obey the order of the Constitutional Court, yet he continues to enjoy the benefits that the Constitution grants to all former Presidents in terms of his pension and other benefits paid for by taxpayers.
The Commission also feels that the former President is displaying a complete disregard for the rights and interests that all South Africans have in obtaining comprehensive responses from him in its inquiry into state capture.
The former President said he was not scared about being arrested
“I do not fear being arrested, I do not fear being convicted nor do I fear being incarcerated. I joined the struggle against the racist apartheid government and the unjust oppression of black people by whites in the country at a very young age,” Zuma said.
In a lengthy statement on Monday, Zuma said he had received an overwhelming number of messages of support from ANC members and the public at large.
He said this followed “the recent extraordinary and unprecedented decision of the Constitutional Court where it effectively decided that I, as an individual citizen, could no longer expect to have my basic constitutional rights protected and upheld by the country’s Constitution.”
Zuma said with this groundswell of messages of support, he felt moved to publicly express solidarity with the sentiments.
“In all the years of struggle, I had never imagined that there would come a time when a democratic government in South Africa built on Constitutional values would behave exactly like the apartheid government in creating legal processes designed to target specific individuals in society,” the former president said.
Zuma said under the circumstances, he was left with no other alternative but to be defiant against injustice, just as he had done against the apartheid government.
“I am again prepared to go to prison to defend the Constitutional rights that I personally fought for and to serve whatever sentence that this democracy."
