President Cyril Ramaphosa will face acute scrutiny when he delivers his implementation plan on some of the 385 recommendations in the state capture inquiry report by October 22.
Civil society organisations the Council for the Advancement of the SA Constitution (Casac) and Accountability Now say they will be closely monitoring Ramaphosa’s talk next week in parliament.
The non-profit organisations participated in a Business Day dialogue on Thursday, accompanied by former public prosecutor, now DA MP Glynnis Breytenbach.
Casac executive secretary Lawson Naidoo says Ramaphosa will face a “tricky juggling act” when announcing the action he will take as head of state while managing his position in the ANC.
“Decisive action, a bit of pruning of the known crooks in cabinet would really change the entire perception of the ANC,” said Accountability Now director Paul Hoffman.
Naidoo, however, did not expect Ramaphosa to take decisive steps against cabinet members such as energy minister Gwede Mantashe or members of the ANC caucus.
“That would be far too risky a strategy for someone who is as risk averse as our president,” he said.
Hoffman called Ramaphosa a “ditherer” but hoped the president would announce an end to cadre deployment in government and state-owned enterprises (SOEs).
“He was head of the cadre deployment committee which absolutely enabled state capture that crippled this country and its economy,” said Breytenbach.
She insisted Ramaphosa must “clean up” the cabinet and the ANC and capacitate agencies, including law enforcement ones and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).
All three speakers suggested an independent anti-corruption entity should be established, though they disagreed on details such as whether it should be a Chapter 9 body.
Breytenbach praised the NPA for its high profile “seminal” state capture cases but cautioned that arrests were a “long cry” from won cases and convictions.
“Mosebenzi Zwane is probably the most high profile of them. They have Anoj Singh, they have Brian Molefe, they have Kgomotso Phahlane from SAPS. There have been a couple of encouraging arrests,” she said.
Naidoo did not expect Ramaphosa to speak much about prosecutions, which are the ambit of the Hawks and NPA, but he hoped the president will strengthen the NPA.
Hoffman hoped Ramaphosa would announce steps to beef up SA’s anti-corruption muscle, while Naidoo insisted Ramaphosa must give timeliness for his action plan.
“If government does not put a clear plan on the table to be able to fix that, then I think the electorate will be the judge come 2024,” he said.
Breytenbach also said she hoped for an apology.
“He must accept that responsibility and his own actions and his large part in the state capture apparatus […] he was deputy president for a large portion of the Zuma years,” said the opposition MP.
Ramaphosa received an amended version of the six-volume report from Zondo on Monday. He is set to deliver his address by October 22.
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