The Zondo state capture commission will go down in history as a momentous event. It is the first step in rebuilding a country that puts its people first by protecting them from the destruction caused when political leaders subvert democracy for their own ends.
The five volumes of the commission’s report clearly highlight cadre deployment as the key enabler of state capture and emphasise that the practice is unconstitutional. The report illustrates the strength of our judicial system, and while state capture hollowed out many organs of state, particularly the SA Revenue Service and some state-owned enterprises (SOEs), we also have much to be proud of in our state institutions.
In the coming months and years our institutions are likely to continue to be tested. Many of those who now face prosecution are powerful cadres who have a lot to lose. Their attempts to subvert judicial processes will grow increasingly desperate.
Publication of the full Zondo report is only the first step. Each of the following elements to the next step forms an essential part of the foundation for the type of country we wish to build:
- Implement the recommendations to prosecute those implicated. That will send a strong signal that there is full accountability in SA, no matter how high an office a person holds. Because of the avalanche of cases requiring prosecution, careful prioritisation will be required. Rajesh and Atul Gupta have already been arrested in Dubai, and the extradition process must be expedited.
- Build the institutions and processes recommended by chief justice Raymond Zondo to help prevent corruption in future. Central to that is the establishment of an anticorruption agency that has teeth.
- Set up a statutory body to vet prospective directors of SOEs for suitable qualifications and integrity. This would put an end to political appointments.
The above elements were highlighted in earlier reports, and in his final report Zondo put forward a fresh set of recommendations aimed at improving accountability to voters within the electoral system. He also suggested measures to ensure that our institutions never again enable a president to hand control of the country over to anyone else.
Zondo has recommended numerous measures to improve voter accountability. He also takes aim at parliament, stating that its failure to hold the executive to account contributed to state capture. He examined several committees, including the portfolio committees on public enterprises, home affairs and mineral resources, and noted that they did not ask important questions and even sought to protect some of the ministers who appeared before them.
He is particularly scathing of the ANC for blocking investigations into state capture, and highlights 2016 — when newspapers were often exposing new tender scams linked to the Guptas and it was widely known that the country was in effect being run by the family from their Saxonwold estate.
Direct election
This included their involvement in appointing cabinet ministers and the CEOs of SOEs, with then president Jacob Zuma’s full co-operation. Zondo notes that the governing party would not support requests by opposition parties for a portfolio committee to look into the allegations.
The major step he recommends to improve voter accountability is aimed not at parliament but at the electoral system itself. He suggests amending the constitution to allow the direct election of the president. This is aimed at ensuring anyone who becomes president does so on the basis of his or her popularity with the people and that parliament (in practice, a dominant party) no longer appoints the president.
He also recommends that the Van Zyl Slabbert Commission Report on Electoral Reform of 2003 be revisited. This recommended a more accountable mix of constituency-based and proportional representation, but was never adopted. Is it time to reform our electoral system? It’s certainly time to renew the debate.
Meanwhile, our country is still grappling to overcome the damaging effects of state capture. Our SOEs are in financial distress, with debt levels having soared, triggering multiple downgrades to their credit ratings. With Transnet and Eskom having been the two prime centres of the looting, our network industries — electricity, rail and ports — are still largely dysfunctional, putting a handbrake on SA’s economic recovery prospects.
Similarly, SA’s sovereign debt-to-GDP ratio has climbed alarmingly, pushing the country’s credit ratings into junk status, making it more expensive for government to take on more debt and increasing the risk premium on investing in SA. The culprits have a lot to answer for.
• Mavuso is CEO of Business Leadership SA.
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