Breaking years of silence, ANC first deputy secretary-general Nomvula Mokonyane has revealed that she has taken the Zondo commission report to court to review its recommendations that she should be charged and criminally prosecuted for corruption.
Mokonyane charged that the report’s recommendations were flawed and “predetermined” and resulted in her prolonged public vilification and negative media coverage against her.
The ANC heavyweight has enlisted the services of advocate Laurence Hodes SC, a lawyer well-versed in politically toxic cases and complex state investigations, to punch holes in the report’s recommendations, signalling that she is preparing for an all-out legal warfare. Zondo’s report recommended that Mokonyane should be criminally charged and prosecuted for accepting bribes from the now defunct Bosasa, among her other alleged sins.
Speaking candidly in a recent Sunday World Engage interview, Mokonyane articulated the gruelling emotional and professional toll exacted by the state capture allegations against her. “You know, the thing that is unfortunate about the Zondo commission is that conclusions and determinations were predetermined.
“I have never accepted the Zondo report. I have left it for my lawyers; they are dealing with it,” she said.
Mokonyane did not want to divulge her battle strategy, saying that her legal team, steered by Hodes, has advised her against engaging with the media on the review process.
“My lawyers said, ‘you do not use media platforms to deal with things that you have given to me’. This is the agreement I have with my lawyers. What I have given you suffices. I have a working relationship with my lawyers. I’m where I am because of the advice they have given me.”
But MamaAction, as Mokonyane is aptly known due to her hard work, maintained that the commission’s recommendations have been used less as instruments of justice than as cudgels to sideline political opponents, with prosecutions failing to materialise even as public opprobrium remains swollen.
Despite the commission’s recommendation that she be prosecuted, Mokonyane said she is a targeted victim.
“They conclude that you must be prosecuted. And then years later, there’s nothing happening to you. And then you begin to wonder. What is unfortunate is that I was not part of the determination of it; I was a victim of it.”
The Zondo commission recommended prosecution based on testimony that Mokonyane received undue gratification, including cash payments, from government facilities management company, Bosasa. The inquiry found she likely used her then ministerial position to influence government contracts benefiting Bosasa.
Mokonyane said pointedly, “You should be asking them, when are you taking Nomvula to court? Zondo said I must be prosecuted. Actually, he has made a predetermination. I got out of this thing knowing very well that I did nothing (wrong).”
Mokonyane also attacked the media for targeting her with its biased coverage as a result of the report. The perpetual media scrutiny, she said, has been particularly galling. “I’m a convict by the media. You go to church. Just when you leave your house, you see a poster saying Nomvula was kicked out of the matrimonial house. I’m paying for my reputation after you guys in the media have damaged it.” She lamented that she was never given space to grieve the loss of her husband. “But my husband went to his grave in marriage.”
She added: “The only thing that annoys me and irks me a lot is that there’s so much political character in all these things… and nothing about fairness.”
Asked about the spectre of the commission’s findings haunting her political future, she remained implacable.
“Let them, the better that they come. You know me; nothing haunts me… There were headlines at some point that I was being arrested. What more, honestly, what more?”
For Mokonyane, the allegations carried a profound personal cost, precipitating her decision to forgo a return to Parliament: “I made my choice, which was my right, not to go back to Parliament, precisely because of it. And I just felt I’m not going to be a burden to the ANC… I cannot go there and be insulted on those things.”
Mokonyane said she appeared before the ANC integrity commission to answer the corruption allegations against her and came out unscathed.
She said although the commission “made no adverse findings against her”, she voluntarily chose not to take up any public representative posts.
“I told them about everything, including what they have on their records, including what they said – that I’m not fit to go to Parliament, but as long as I’m fit to be a South African citizen, I’m at peace.”
Mokonyane’s frustration is palpable, lamenting that other implicated ANC leaders continue to languish on “step aside” orders years after the commission’s findings and their lives are on indefinite pause.
