Zondo gets the giggles during Kwinana’s State Capture testimony

As the State Capture Commission of Inquiry continues to capture the eyes of the nation, it also manages to make Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo laugh, sweat and fume with anger — you name it. Then again, perhaps there has been no other witness quite like former South African Airways (SAA) board member Yakhe Kwinana. 

On Tuesday, which was the second day of her testimony, Zondo was at one point fuming and at another, giggling uncontrollably. 

Kwinana, amongst other things, is known for having no recollection of signing off on a R1 billion contract SAA dished out. 

WATCH: ZONDO LAUGHS DURING KWINANA’S STATEMENTS

One can play the above video from [6:45] onwards.

According to TimesLive, businessman Vuyisile Ndzeku was targeted as an alleged facilitator of “corrupt payments” to Kwinana. 

Kwinana alleges that the payments made to her by Ndzeku were for the purposes of Forex trading, which she invested on behalf clients and associates.

Kwinana said she gave hard copies of statements regarding the investment to Mr Ndzeku on an annual basis every January. When asked why she didn’t email the client, in this case, Mr Ndzeku she said she could not due to confidentiality. 

“I do not know if the email is safe enough,” she said. 

State Capture evidence leader Advocate Kate Hofmeyr said Mr Ndzeku’s evidence before the commission stated something different, that he received the documents via email. 

Zondo then asked if that’s what she did with all her other clients. Kwinana responded saying yes. 

“So when you were at SAA and you were communicating with people about confidential matters, you were happy to send an email, correct?” Kwinana responded saying yes. 

“But when you are investing some money in Forex Trading for your associates, I’ll call them associates because you’re resisting saying it’s members of the public, you won’t email them?” asked Hofmeyer.  

Kwinana said; “Yes chair”.  

Zondo stepped in saying; “why are considerations of confidentiality such that you feel you need to deliver these statements personally to your clients but when it’s confidential matters relating to SAA, you find no problem in emailing people with whom you must be in touch about such information?”

Kwinana said it depends on the company’s policy. “At Zano Spark we decided that we are not going to email because the emails do get hacked left right and centre and therefore our policy was that we are not going to email. SAA’s policy would be different in the delivery of confidential information from Zano Spark,” she said. 

‘I WILL NOT EMAIL IT TO YOU’ 

Hofmeyer asked if Kwinana could provide the commission with the policy from Zano Spark. She responded saying yes. That was until Hofmeyer asked for it to be emailed. 

“I wonder if you could email it to us? Would you do that?” asked Hofmeyer.  

“I have to hand-deliver it because that’s our policy,” said Kwinana.  

Zondo stepped in saying there couldn’t be anything confidential about the policy. “You have told us publicly what the policy says so there’s nothing confidential about it,” he said. It was at this point that Zondo burst out laughing.

“So if you want the policy Miss Hofmeyer, I will not email it to you. I will print and deliver to you,” said Kwinana. 

Hofmeyer kindly explained why she wanted it on email. She said they can do a metadata analysis on it to establish when the document was created. 

“Your evidence thus far is dishonest,” added Hofmeyer. 

“I am not going to email it to you because that would be a breach of our policy,” added Kwinana.