Organised business is looking at measures to bolster prosecuting bodies, including providing private prosecutors, to ensure that all those implicated in state capture are brought to book.
The Zondo commission, which published the first part of its report last week, said some major firms such as PwC and Bain were involved in questionable deals with state-owned entities.
Shamila Batohi, the national director of public prosecutions at the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), has said that the body is under-resourced and underfunded, and warned that this could make it almost impossible to prosecute all matters flagged by the commission.
“We will look at some initiatives already under way to bolster the capacity of the National Prosecuting Authority,” said Cas Coovadia, the CEO of Business Unity SA (Busa). The lack of protection of whistle-blowers was also a major concern for business leaders, he said.
Busa met on Monday to discuss the state capture report and Coovadia said it would co-ordinate initiatives by its members — which include banks, insurance firms retailers, and various professional bodies — to provide the NPA with the necessary resources to urgently prepare cases to prosecute those identified in the report.
“Such resources could include private prosecutors and other relevant assistance. We will engage the NPA about this,” Coovadia said.
The first part of the state capture report slated consulting firm PwC for failing to act as a watchdog amid acts of corruption and fraud at SAA. It also called for a further investigation into US management consultancy firm Bain & Co. regarding the contracts it was awarded by the SA Revenue Service. Nedbank is also highlighted in the report for its “disturbing” involvement in transactions at the Airports Company SA (Acsa).
There are concerns that companies implicated in the state capture project remain affiliated to business associations such as Busa, which has been pushing to promote professional ethics and integrity. Late last year, Bain was welcomed back at Business Leadership SA [BLSA], a member association of Busa, after being shunned for three years over the state capture scandal. BLSA said at the time that Bain had taken steps to deal with the wrongdoing, including the dismissal of its former managing partner in SA, Vittorio Massone, and replacing him with Tiaan Moolman.
Coovadia said the Busa board has asked relevant members to urgently engage with any businesses mentioned in the report, to get a full briefing about the allegations and to understand what actions those businesses intend taking.
“The outcome of these urgent engagements will inform Busa’s position on these aspects of the report,” Coovadia said.
The Busa board was clear that businesses must use the report to develop a position that reflects serious consideration of the involvement of businesses in the state capture saga, he said.
“We believe the recommendations in the report relating to investigations and prosecution of identified parties must be pursued with urgency and we expect the criminal justice system to allocate the necessary resources to ensure speedy investigations and prosecution,” Coovadia added.
“We discussed, in particular, the issue of protection of whistle-blowers and a role for business in addressing the dire circumstances some of the whistle-blowers are in,” he said.
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