South Africa’s Zuma claims he received death threats

Johannesburg, July 17 (IANS) Former South African President Jacob Zuma has claimed that he has received death threats over a telephonic call.

Zuma on Tuesday told the state capture commission, which is probing corruption that he, his children and legal team had received death threats overnight, Xinhua reported.

Before resuming his second day of testimony, Zuma informed the commission's Chairperson, Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo that his personal assistant received a phone call on Monday night from an unidentified person who said "tell Zuma that we are going to kill him, his children."

Zuma said he was concerned about the death threats due to the previous attempted assassinations on his life.

"This commission must know that my life, my children and my lawyers are now under threat. I'm putting this on record because I've lost a child and I now know what happened," Zuma said.

He said that his senior counsel advocate Muzi Sikhakhane had received similar deaths last week.

Responding to Zuma, Zondo said threats against witnesses should not be tolerated.

"It's totally unacceptable for anybody in our society to want to use threats, intimidation and all kinds of illegal means against whom they are unhappy about, because our legal system is such that people can go to court and to the police if they have complaints against other people," Zondo said people must take a stand against threats and intimidation.

Another witness who gave evidence at the commission last year also claimed that she was subjected to death threats.

The inquiry was established last year following a report on allegations of corruption and looting within state-owned companies.

This whole week has been set aside for Zuma's testimony.