The Presidency has confirmed that part 2 of the Zondo report will be made publicly available on Tuesday.
“The Presidency will publish this part of the report shortly after it is presented,” Tyrone Seale, acting spokesperson in the Presidency said.
Acting chief justice Raymond Zondo was tasked with investigating state capture when former President Jacob Zuma was in office, and interviewed hundreds of witness in commission of inquiry that has now lasted almost four years.
Zondo’s report has been divided into three parts with the final part due to be handed over to the president in late February.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has indicated that he will need four months after receiving the final report to make submissions to parliament on the way forward.
While Zondo did not make any findings on the architects of state capture in the first instalment of his report, he did implicate Zuma, arguing that the influence his business associates, the Gupta's “exerted” was considerable”.
From the use of Waterkloof Air Force Base as a private landing strip for the Guptas in 2013 to the demand for government contracts and the successful appointments of preferred candidates to the national executive, Zuma allowed the use of his name to them. This resulted in the controversial Indian business benefiting from lucrative government contracts.
In the first report, Zondo found that Transnet was the blueprint for state capture and once that project had successfully sidestepped the government’s procurement processes, other SOEs followed, including power utility Eskom and arms manufacturer Denel.
Two former finance ministers, Pravin Gordhan and Nhlanhla Nene, explained to Zondo during the inquiry that former SAA chair Dudu Myeni was retained in that post because of Zuma’s personal preferences, which was “the antithesis of accountability”, Zondo said.
SAA spent months in business rescue, a form of bankruptcy protection, and the government is in the process of selling a majority stake in the airline to private investors.
The report recommended that criminal charges be instituted against a number of key role players in state capture, including Myeni, former Transnet CEO Brian Molefe, former Eskom CEO Collin Matjila and the Guptas. The report also recommends sanctions against former SA Revenue Service (Sars) commissioner Tom Moyane, which include charges of perjury.
“Evidence that was heard by the commission in regard to Sars revealed conclusively that Mr Moyane was involved in advancing the project of state capture when he was [the] commissioner of Sars,” Zondo said.
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