A good week for Raymond Zondo
Raymond Zondo can finally put his feet up. The chief justice retired last week after 27 years on the bench. His work included heading the commission that investigated government corruption under former president Jacob Zuma and exposed state capture by the Gupta brothers, among others. Zondo was appointed a Constitutional Court justice in 2012; in 2017 he became the deputy chief justice; and he was promoted to chief justice in 2022. In 2018 he began the commission that now carries his name. Zondo was widely hailed last week as someone who helped South Africa restore some of its dignity.
A bad week for Risenga Maluleke
Risenga Maluleke is a statistician who either got his sums wrong, or didn’t hand in all his homework on time. South Africa’s statistician-general came up with all kinds of excuses last week for his organisation’s flawed 2022 census report. Stats SA released the first part of the results last October, with the second-phase release of the 10% sample data scheduled for the end of August. It has been criticised in recent days over the exclusion of information related to income and earnings, labour and employment, and mortality and fertility. The census reportedly cost taxpayers R2.3bn.
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