The Zuma Foundation says it plans criminal and JSC complaints against Sisi Khampepe after the Constitutional Court dismissed a recusal bid.
The Jacob Zuma Foundation says it intends to open a criminal case and lodge a Judicial Service Commission complaint against retired Justice Sisi Khampepe following the Constitutional Court’s dismissal of a recusal bid.
Foundation spokesperson Mzwanele Manyi announced the planned steps on Tuesday. No criminal charge or disciplinary finding against Khampepe had been reported when the announcement was made.
The proposed complaints follow Monday’s Constitutional Court judgment in litigation brought by former presidents Jacob Zuma and Thabo Mbeki. They sought to have Khampepe removed as chair of the commission investigating alleged interference in the investigation and prosecution of Truth and Reconciliation Commission cases.
The Constitutional Court dismissed the applications. Its official media summary records that the matter produced three judgments and an evenly divided outcome on key questions before the court.
Manyi alleged that material placed before the courts showed unlawful or unethical conduct involving Khampepe and the commission’s evidence leader. Those assertions are the foundation’s allegations; they are not findings by a criminal court, the police or the Judicial Service Commission.
The foundation said the intended criminal complaint would be made to the South African Police Service and that the separate ethics complaint would be submitted to the JSC.
Khampepe served as a Constitutional Court justice from 2009 until her retirement in 2021. President Cyril Ramaphosa appointed her in 2025 to chair the inquiry into whether efforts were made to stop investigations or prosecutions arising from apartheid-era crimes.
The recusal litigation concerned her previous institutional roles, including service on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and a period at the National Prosecuting Authority. The applications argued that those roles created a reasonable apprehension of bias.
The dismissal leaves Khampepe in place as commission chair. A complaint to SAPS would still have to be assessed through the normal criminal-investigation process, while any JSC complaint would follow that body’s procedures. The foundation had not announced a case number or a formal JSC outcome at the time of publication.
