By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Pretoria high court has granted Chief Justice Raymond Zondo permission to make corrections on the two volumes of the state capture report following an application by the commission chair.
In a judgment delivered by Deputy Judge President Aubrey Ledwaba on Wednesday, the court ruled that corrected versions of two volumes of the report may be delivered to President Cyril Ramaphosa.
This must be done by 10 October.
Zondo has also been given permission to add an analysis of the evidence of two witnesses, which was unintentionally left out in the final report.
At the time he went to court, the Chief Justice insisted that the corrections would prejudice nobody, and they would be in the public interest, adding that the mistakes in the report were due to exhaustion.
Typos were corrected in volume 2 of Part VI, while volume 3 of Part VI revises some figures.
Ledwaba also condoned the late delivery of the final instalment of the report and ordered that the commission be allowed to give the president “a version of Volume 4 of Part VI … that has all the recommendations contained in all the volumes of the report”.
Last month, Ramaphosa told MPs that the “political will” was there to deliver the final report to Parliament on time.
The president has to submit the state capture report on 22 October, and also has to present an action plan for implementation of the report’s 358 recommendations.
“We are looking to see how it touches on our own implementation deadlines, [but] the implementation plan is being finalised. The political will is there.
When we bring the implementation plan to parliament that is when the will of the government will become clear that indeed we are serious and we have the will to do so,” he said during a Q&A session on 29 September.
He further said the plan would indicate which recommendations have been prioritised for implementation.