South Africa's Zuma to cooperate with graft inquiry after threat to pull out

JOHANNESBURG: Former South African president Jacob Zuma agreed to continue giving evidence at a public inquiry into state corruption on Friday after earlier complaining of "relentless cross-examination" and saying he would pull out.

The inquiry is looking into allegations that Zuma, ousted by the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party in February 2018, had allowed cronies to plunder state resources and influence senior appointments during his nine years in power.

Zuma, 77, has long denied any wrongdoing but he has ducked and dived in his testimony to the inquiry this week, saying that he is being questioned unfairly.

Zuma's lawyer Muzi Sikhakhane told the senior judge overseeing the inquiry, Raymond Zondo, that Zuma had been subject to a "relentless cross-examination".

"We are here today to say we will take no further part in these proceedings," Sikhakhane said. "This animal called corruption is amorphous, we don't know who is actually corrupt."

However, Zonda said the former president had agreed to continue cooperating with the inquiry via his legal team by providing written statements.

"It is contemplated within this agreement that at a certain stage the former president will come back and give evidence," said Zonda, who then adjourned Friday's hearing.

SHREWD OPERATOR

Zuma's successor, President Cyril Ramaphosa, is on a drive to clean up politics. Political analysts say that if the inquiry doesn't link Zuma to serious wrongdoing it could dent Ramaphosa's credibility.

State prosecutors are following the inquiry and could open cases if sufficient evidence emerges.

But Zuma, who was head of intelligence for the outlawed ANC under apartheid, is a shrewd operator who survived several no-confidence votes before his ousting.

On Monday he told the inquiry he had been the victim of a decades-old plot hatched by foreign intelligences services and South Africa's former apartheid government to get rid of him.

He denied that he had done anything unlawful with his friends the Guptas, three Indian-born businessmen who won lucrative state contracts during Zuma's time in power, repeating: "I know nothing."

The Guptas, who have not appeared at the inquiry, have denied that they used their relationship with Zuma to plunder state resources.