State capture inquiry chair judge Raymond Zondo and his team now have the mammoth task of finalising their report, after three years of public hearings concluded on Thursday.
With the report due by October, the onus is on Zondo to make findings and recommendations to ensure history does not repeat itself. He will also have to assign culpability for state capture, make a case that those who were responsible be prosecuted and that the billions of rand lost as a result of industrial-scale looting are recovered.
“State capture” refers to systemic political corruption under former president Jacob Zuma’s administration in which business and politicians conspired to influence decision-making at various levels of government and within state-owned institutions.
Historically, commissions of inquiry in SA have been used to quell public outrage but have not resulted in reform.
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s two days of evidence marked the end of almost 430 days of public testimony, which started in 2018. To date the commission has cost the state about R1bn, but its champions argue the process is important for SA's recovery.
“We are taking serious steps to cleanse our state and also our party. And this is a process, it’s not a one-day event. It is by no means going to be completed in a short space of time,” said Ramaphosa.
The president was set to be the final witness at the inquiry, but there may be applications for further public sittings. Zondo expects written submissions from several implicated people, among other parties. Throughout the public hearings, Zondo has consistently tried to obtain responses from implicated parties, including Zuma, who is serving 15 months in jail for defying an order of the Constitutional Court to testify before Zondo.
On Thursday Ramaphosa defended his administration’s work to claw back funds and rebuild organs of state, such as the revenue service. While it was near impossible to determine the true cost of state capture, he said, it ran into billions.
“Those who might think that not much has been done and achieved, I keep saying ‘I say watch this space’, not in the future but — as in — now,” Ramaphosa said.
He said the commission was an important juncture, which would mark the “last state capture moment” in SA. “We’ve hit rock bottom as a country and the only way is up”.
Over two days various evidence leaders, including legal team head advocate Paul Pretorius, posed questions about Ramaphosa’s conduct as Zuma’s deputy.
Ramaphosa detailed his strategy to remain in government, even though he considered resigning as Zuma’s second-in-command. “You had to choose your battles, you had to choose which ones would lead to tilting the balance,” he said.
In many ways, the questions Ramaphosa fielded, and his ensuing testimony, drew a composite of the inquiry’s work. Pretorius hinted at what could feature in the inquiry’s report. “For the chair, the distinction between a collective grouping of corruption on one hand and a purposeful project of state capture on the other will be pronounced,” he said.
Ramaphosa dealt with the ANC’s deployment committee; cabinet appointments; capture at state-owned enterprises; political interference in state security; weakened capacity in organs of state, such as the prosecuting authority and police; claims of lawbreaking against the notorious Gupta brothers; and the nuclear deal.
“We are willing to admit and confront mistakes,” he said.
His oral testimony supplemented a written statement of 603 pages including attachments. “My ability and the ability of others to resist and bring about an end to state capture relied in a large part on a balance of forces in the party, in parliament and in society more broadly,” it read.
Pretorius said this was profound. “Those opposing forces were dominant. They controlled the fate of the party and in that sense they controlled the fate of the country.”
Ramaphosa agreed there was a “political project at play” and said it was for this reason that he elected to remain in power as deputy president. The leader, who won the ANC’s 2017 elective conference by a hair’s breadth, said the governing party’s survival was at stake.
In his testimony, Ramaphosa admitted the ANC lost support because of corruption. “It is an existential challenge. For us to continue existing we need to renew ourselves,” he said.
To him, state capture sullied citizens’ confidence in the rule of law and even the wholesale democratic process. The people expected Zondo to uncover the truth, he said. “They also look to this commission to identify those who are responsible and to recommend measures that should be taken against those who are responsible.”
Inquiry personnel have been working on the final text of Zondo’s report for months. Several sections on certain focus areas have already been drafted. The final document will include recommendations, including how to tackle state capture crimes.
The report is likely to land on the president’s desk sometime in 2022.
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