Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo on Tuesday said he would on Wednesday deliver judgment on the application for him to recuse himself from the state capture inquiry brought by former president Jacob Zuma’s testimony.

“I was hoping to give judgment this morning… I am not going to give a ruling or judgment this morning because I am still working on it. I have quite some documentation to go through carefully. I am going to use today to work on that judgment, so we are going to adjourn and resume tomorrow at 10am,” Zondo announced on Tuesday morning in Johannesburg.

The deputy chief justice gave Zuma permission to be absent from the inquiry on Wednesday, after the former president’s representatives said he was dealing with a bereavement.

Zondo on Monday heard arguments from Zuma’s legal representatives on why he should not preside over the commission. Proceedings of the day began with Zondo reading a statement in which he outlined his every past interaction with the former president.

As Zuma sat and listened, Zondo said they had never been friends.

“That is not accurate,” Zondo said, as he recounted the times over the past two and a half decades that the pair’s paths had crossed.

Zondo said he paid his respects when one of Zuma’s wives died “18 or 20 years ago”, but Zuma had never attended any of his family funerals or events, such as birthday celebrations.

In 1996, a year before he became a judge, he had met Zuma because he was representing a client as a lawyer who wanted to bring an application against him.

However, Zondo said, he never brought the application because he was then appointed to the Bench.

He added that Zuma had never previously sought his recusal from the Bench in any of the matters involving the former head of state.

Advocate Muzi Sikhakhane, for Zuma, argued that the reason Zuma wanted Zondo to recuse himself was that the commission’s line-up of witnesses gave Zuma the impression that Zondo was supporting their version of state capture.

Sikhakhane told Zondo he had made all-too-human “mistakes” in the manner in which he responded to the testimony of those implicating Zuma in state capture.

This had led the former president to believe he would be entering “a slaughterhouse” should he take the stand.