State Capture judicial inquiries have cost South Africa almost R300m
Johannesburg – Part 2 of the State Capture report has been released shedding light on the corruption that has taken place under the ANC government. The report put the spotlight on State-Owned Enterprises (SOE), Denel and Transnet.
Sandile Swana, a political analyst and lecturer at Wits Business School, spoke to Salaamedia about Acting Chief Justice Raymond Zondo’s reports (Part 1 and 2) into allegations of state capture. While Part 3 is reported to be released at the end of February 2022, what has been delivered paints a picture of a criminal network involving the ANC, Jacob Zuma and the Gupta brothers. Released a month earlier, part 1 revealed how the Guptas set up a system of crookery, with the help of ANC members. Part 2 takes a deep look at how the Gupta’s helped themselves to billions from Denel and Transnet.
“Denel represented the success that over many decades South Africa had enjoyed in the arms industry and I think by 2015 or so Denel was actually performing quite well and the management team that was in place was then removed and replaced with a corrupt team that was linked to what you can call the State Capture mafia which was led by the Gupta family and the Zuma family and the sponsorship of the African National Congress (ANC).”
Highlighting the pattern where the minister of State-owned enterprises, then President Zuma, the board, and senior management were working for that “particular mafia” – the Guptas.
“… and they actually did a lot of damage. I looked at one section of the report where about five billion rand was paid out in kickbacks, if you like, for the purchasing of trains.”
Transnet has two sides; the passenger side, which is run by PRASA and the goods side. Transnet had three tenders to buy trains which were all fraudulent purchases according to Swana.
“All of those three purchases were fraudulent in a number of important respects in the sense that the builders who are well-established suppliers to Transnet with well-known technologies were kicked out and Chinese leaders were brought in who did not meet the specifications that were required and there was excessive money for prepayment. I think it was 600 million [rands] prepaid to the Chinese.”
Swana stated that the process of getting back the money has already started with the ex-PRASA chief engineer found guilty of fraud. Although it will take time for judgment to be handed out, the ANC seems to be losing their support and by the next election, “it will not be the dominant party that it once was that could suppress prosecution and misdirect the security agencies and the justice agencies. That period is over.”
Professor Andre Duvenhage, academic and political analyst based at the University of North-West, believes that the report will have huge implications for the ANC and state security as “senior ANC ministers are implicated in many ways. In fact, it is implicating state security in a very direct way.”
The content of part 3 might hold less suspense than the reaction, conclusion, recommendations and implementation of the President and leading groups.
The Presidency said it will receive the commission’s third and final report on 28 February while the full report will be submitted to Parliament by the end of June.
Julie Alli spoke to Sandile Swana, a Political Analyst, on News & Views. Listen to the full discussion here:
