Report spells out years of president’s inaction

Chief justice Raymond Zondo, chair of the state capture inquiry, has blasted President Cyril Ramaphosa over his silence and inaction regarding systematic political corruption.

On Wednesday night, Zondo delivered the final section of the state-capture inquiry report to the presidency, identifying numerous defects in Ramaphosa’s testimony.

Ramaphosa, said Zondo, was for years “unwilling to damage the ANC by publicly going against it” over state capture. The president testified to the inquiry about “sign posts” of what he later realised was state capture.

“In my view he should have spoken out. I accept that it may be difficult to choose between the option [of] keeping quiet, and keeping quiet but resisting.

“It would be untenable to send a message that if the same scenario were to happen again sometime in the future, the |right thing is not to speak out,” Zondo wrote.

It emerged during questions after the ceremonial handover at the Union Buildings that

Ramaphosa was aware the report included a chapter on his evidence, but he did not yet know its contents. “We’ve dealt with each other with a great deal of integrity, not for [sic] once ever wanting to discuss the substance of the work that the chief justice was doing,” he said.

The chapter on Ramaphosa’s evidence, which is 122 pages long, reflects his input as state president and ANC leader.

Zondo said Ramaphosa was “privy to various events the commission has been mandated to investigate” and “worked with many individuals who have been directly implicated” in wrongdoing.

He found Ramaphosa’s submissions did not properly answer what the president knew and when, and what he did in response.

“He mentioned very little in the way of personal, first-hand evidence and stressed that those involved in state capture conducted their business in secret,” wrote Zondo.

But, argued Zondo, there was substantial media coverage on the Guptas from 2010. Current transport minister Fikile Mbalula said in a 2011 meeting of the ANC’s national executive committee that he learnt of his appointment as sports minister from a Gupta brother.

In 2013, the Guptas’ private jet carrying wedding guests destined for a wedding at Sun City landed at Waterkloof air force base, leading to a diplomatic scandal and a public outcry.

In Zondo’s view, there was sufficient information by April 2013 to suggest to Ramaphosa that the claims of state capture were credible.

“Ramaphosa had nothing to lose by speaking out against what was happening. The option he chose did not prevent state capture from continuing.”

Ramaphosa said the release of leaked Gupta emails alerted him to state capture.

According to Zondo, he ought to have known much sooner and acted more decisively. “There was surely enough credible information in the public domain, long before December 2016, to at least prompt him to [inquire] and perhaps act on a number of serious allegations. As the deputy president, he surely had the responsibility to do so,” he wrote.

Ramaphosa declined to comment on the specific aspects of the commission findings and recommendations, his office said on Thursday.

Zondo doubted Ramaphosa’s assertion that then president Jacob Zuma would have fired him for being confrontational about state capture, and found further fault with the ANC.

“He must have believed that the ruling party would not defend him in such a case and that the ANC would have protected a president who fired his deputy president for the crime of confronting corruption ... this is an indictment on the party and its leadership,” the chapter read.

Ramaphosa testified he was among cabinet members who resisted the establishment of an inquiry into banks after the closure of Gupta-linked accounts.

But Zondo criticised him for suggesting that the grounds for closure be investigated.

“It is not clear why President Ramaphosa thought it was acceptable for cabinet to make such inquiries of the banks, nor did he explain what he thought would result from this process ... the involvement of cabinet at all is highly questionable.”

Zondo said the ANC was “acting knowingly in concert with cabinet in this unlawful intervention into the affairs of the banks”. The party’s top six, including Zuma and Ramaphosa, “directed the ANC to engage with banks at Oakbay’s behest”.

Zondo also criticised Ramaphosa over the slow implementation of recommendations in the high-level panel review’s report on state security led by Sydney Mufamadi. The report was submitted in late 2018.

Zondo slated Ramaphosa’s redeployment of former state security minister David Mahlobo, who he appointed as deputy minister of water & sanitation in 2019, and directorgeneral Arthur Fraser.

He said Mufamadi showed Mahlobo presided over the State Security Agency (SSA) when it had “complete disregard” for the constitution, and the panel had ample evidence Mahlobo “involved himself directly” in the SSA. “It is unclear why President Ramaphosa would await further investigation,” said Zondo.

He took the president to task over cadre deployment and Ramaphosa’s role chairing the deployment committee from 2012 to 2017 when appointments took place that in some cases ultimately aided and abetted state capture.

Zondo slammed the ANC’s inaction over several years. He found “substantial evidence” the ANC was a beneficiary of state capture and prioritised its survival and strength over its members’ constitutional obligations.

He slated what Ramaphosa called the ANC’s years of inaction when “the party made a series of decisions over a number of years to not act against Mr Zuma and other complicit parties”.

Ramaphosa did not address Zondo’s concern over the ANC’s deployment committee. He raised the alarm that it took decisions outside SA’s constitutional structures, shielded from scrutiny or oversight.

While on the stand at the commission hearings, Ramaphosa conceded that corruption was “continuing and pervasive, in government and the party”. But, Zondo said, Ramaphosa did not offer any “real analysis” or “explanation” why the ANC’s attempts to tackle these problems had failed in the past and why that would — as he asserted — now change.

“What is abundantly clear from the evidence before the commission is that for as long as the ANC is in power, the failure of the ANC successfully to reform and renew itself as undertaken by President Ramaphosa will render the SA state unable to rid itself of the scourge of state capture and corruption,” Zondo determined.