Faith Nyasuguta
South African investigators have handed over the first installment of a long-awaited report into graft during ex-president Jacob Zuma’s tenure.
The report of the investigation done for four years was handed to Zuma’s successor, President Cyril Ramaphosa, who has pledged to root out graft and financial sleaze.
“This is what I would call a defining moment in our country’s effort to definitively end the era of state capture and to restore the integrity… of our institutions and more importantly our government,” Ramaphosa said.
The president hopes that the findings will “mark a decisive break with the corrupt practices that our country (South Africa) has experienced in the past.”
Before June ends, Ramaphosa is set to brief parliament on his response to the report, put together by a top-tier commission which lacks powers of prosecution.
In May 2009, Zuma, 79, became South Africa’s post-apartheid president, succeeding Thabo Mbeki.
However, his presidency was marred by a reputation for corruption, with cronies influencing state appointments, contracts and state businesses.
CASH LOOTED
The web-like process, known in South Africa as “state capture,” sparked losses that at the time were equal to about seven billion dollars, a past estimate by Pravin Gordhan, a former finance minister given responsibility for state companies revealed.
With an increasing outcry, Zuma was pushed into establishing an investigative commission under Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, before being pushed out of office in February 2018 by the ruling African National Congress (ANC).
“It’s been a grueling four years,” Zondo revealed on Tuesday as he physically handed the weighty volume to Ramaphosa at a Pretoria ceremony.
A second volume of the report will be given to Ramaphosa at the end of January, and the third and final one at the end of February, according to the presidency.
VOLUME ONE
Zondo revealed that the first volume deals with corruption at South African Airways, the New Age newspaper, the country’s tax collector and the issue of public procurement.
In a 34 month period, his commission heard accounts of rampant misappropriation of funds from some of the 270 witnesses, who included business people, civil servants and intelligence officers.
Majority of the evidence to the commission was tied to a wealthy Indian immigrant family headed by three brothers — Ajay, Atul and Rajesh Gupta — who allegedly wielded undue influence over Zuma.
The brothers are at the center of claims they paid bribes to influence ministerial appointments and plunder state bodies.
They left South Africa shortly after the commission began its work, and their whereabouts are unknown.
Ex-president Zuma repeatedly refused to testify to the commission and in July was imprisoned for contempt of court.
Despite the graft reputation of his presidency, Zuma is still popular among many grassroots ANC members.
His jailing sparked violent protests that devolved into rioting and looting in his home region, KwaZulu-Natal, and spread to the financial hub Johannesburg.
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