STATEMENT ON ALLEGED INVESTIGATION OF BANK ACCOUNTS OF THE ZUMA

CHILDREN BY COMMISSION INTO STATE CAPTURE

I have noted with concern the media reports in the Sunday Times of 11
October 2020 alleging that the Commission into State Capture has summoned
my children’s bank accounts from the banks.

Indeed the terms of reference make it clear that I, and not my children, am
central to the investigation of the Commission. I have indeed accepted that
the Commission is desperate to deliver me for what is alleged to be my role in
what is called “State Capture” as it cannot complete this Commission without
lynching the original target of those who conceptualized the Commission as a
part of the campaigns to discredit me.

However, I condemn as utter cowardice the attempts to target my children by

way of clandestine investigations into matters that have nothing to do with
them. My children live their lives separately and must be treated like any child
or person that has not been implicated in any wrong-doing. So far, they have
not been served with any notices indicating that they are in any way
implicated by any witness selected by the Commission.

It is equally disturbing that my children became aware of these investigations

when they were called by journalists in the week leading up to the story in the
Sunday Times. Clearly, we are back to the old methods and times, during
which the media were alerted of investigations before the subjects of such
investigations were even advised. We are back to the period during which
investigations and prosecutions were media driven and sought to humiliate
subjects of investigations in order to pursue political agendas that should
belong far from law-enforcement agencies, whose functions are enshrined in
the Constitution.

I am pleading with our law enforcement agencies, our media, the banks and
more particularly the investigators of the Commission, to leave my children out
of their brief to scapegoat and punish me in order to conceal the crimes of the
powerful.

My children were not in government and should not be dragged into battles
designed to destroy me. If they have become subjects of any investigation by
the Commission, they should be notified just like any other implicated person
so that they can exercise their rights like any other implicated person.

It is disappointing that the banks conspire in this way with unlawful

investigations. Not even the apartheid regime conspired with banks to affect
private accounts of children of those pursued by the state.

Having spent my entire life under the intolerable and inhumane conditions of
apartheid, the brutality of apartheid laws and the torture of those apartheid
deemed to be “AMAPHEKULA ZIKHUNI”, the apartheid regime never connived
with banks to harass the children of activists the way this democratic order
seems to be doing. It appears that the veneer of democracy is merely a mask
to cover the real dirt that lurks beneath the surface.

This harassment of even the children of political opponents is the height of

barbarism. The marking of families and associates of those perceived to be
enemies of the new order as “politically exposed people” is a shameful
conspiracy between government and financial institutions. Families are
harassed in this fashion in order to beat them to submission. This is done by
people purporting to be democrats and seemingly pursuing clean
government. This harassment of family members of political opponents is one
of the worst forms of authoritarianism and a violation of the Constitution about
which our leaders and banks boast to the entire world.

In a country that subscribes to the rule of law, it should not be the case that
our children and family members are tagged and paraded in this fashion. This
selective morality, which protects some from prosecution while tagging others
as scapegoats is inconsistent with our declared culture of human rights and
equality before the law.

My family and I have not known peace under apartheid and yet we remain
tagged in post-apartheid South Africa. I have tolerated intense harassment
and relentless vilification for 25 years. My opponents have now decided to
target my children and this is where I draw the line and state that this
harassment of my children is a declaration of war. The system has crossed the
line and I will fight it with all I have. I have subjected myself to the biased legal
system and despite my reservation have respected its crooked ways and
political and selective prosecution. However, targeting my children is a
despicable act conducted by those in power who do this on behalf of the old
apartheid system that seems to have returned to the driving seat and is in
control of many of our organs of state and law enforcement institutions.

I have had enough. “AKUKHO THUSI LATHETHA LILODWA” .

My children are being harassed by the Sunday Times, the very newspaper that
lied and told the whole world that I owned a house in Dubai. It has never been
asked to account for this lie. We will find out who is behind the agenda of the
Sunday Times and what inspires its editors and owners to pursue my family with
such venom and vigour.

I will retaliate for my family. I will not stand by when my children have become
victims of faceless cowards doing the bidding for their masters from whom they
beg for crumbs and left-overs falling off from the dinner table. When next these
editors visit Stellenbosch to kiss the ring and beg for approval, I want them to
know that when they declare war on my children they have declared war on
me and I will respond. The same goes for those investigators that abuse the
powers of the Commission to fight me and my children. I will defeat them. You
can send as many pseudo-analysts as you wish to sing the narrative you have
created about me, I will not let you fight my children and win. YOU WILL NOT
GET ME. THE FORMER LEADERS WHO HAVE SUDDENLY FOUND A VOICE TO BEG
FOR PAYMENT FROM THEIR MASTERS ARE NOTHING BUT A DISGRACE AND
DESERVE NO RESPONSE FROM ME.

I am therefore pleading with the Commission and our law enforcement

agencies to do whatever they seek to do to punish me, but to leave my
children to live their lives without being targeted by such powerful institutions.

ISSUED BY
Jacob Gedleyhlekisa Zuma
15 October 2020