Opposition criticise Ramaphosa for not acting against members of executive implicated in Zondo’s report

Opposition parties have criticised President Cyril Ramaphosa’s apparent failure to take action against members of his executive implicated in state capture.

Announcing government steps to implement recommendations made by chief justice Raymond Zondo in his state capture report, Ramaphosa said these measures are designed to provide redress in respect of past events and to advance the renewal of society.

But there was no announcement of action against implicated ministers or deputy ministers. He only said he is attending to the commission’s recommendations in this regard.

“In exercising my powers with respect to members of the executive, I am required to consider the commission’s findings, recommendations and observations about particular individuals,” he said.

“In this regard, I am attending to the commission’s recommendations on members of the executive, against whom adverse findings were made,” he said.

DA chief whip Siviwe Gwarube said Ramaphosa’s address on Sunday night confirmed that it was parliament that must act as the last line of defence against state capture.

Gwarube has repeatedly called on parliament to act on Zondo’s recommendations, instead of waiting for Ramaphosa’s plan.

She said Ramaphosa simply provided an analysis of the Zondo report, instead of stating what he and the executive intend doing to insulate government processes from grand theft again.

“More glaringly, the president completely avoided making any announcements about cabinet ministers who have been implicated in state capture and how he will be holding them to account. This is firmly within his mandate and yet he made a vague mention about looking into this,” said Gwarube.

She said after years of the commission, which cost about R1bn, little action will be taken. This was the reason parliament had to finally affirm its role as an independent arm of state that is constitutionally obliged to hold government to account.

Gwarube accused National Assembly speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula of abdicating parliament’s responsibility to this process by stating that the institution would wait for Ramaphosa to table his implementation report.

The EFF said it was exasperated with “yet another smokescreen address” by Ramaphosa.

The party said Ramaphosa was weaponising the state capture report to hide his own “corrupt activities” relating to his Phala Phala game farm.

“The only address that Ramaphosa needs to make is his resignation,” said the party.

For IFP president Velenkosini Hlabisa it appeared Ramaphosa’s recommendations will only target inconsequential people, which does not create much confidence.

“Only when we see those in the president’s executive who have been implicated by the Zondo commission facing consequences, can the ANC have any hope of convincing South Africa that they can restore the broken country they created,” said Hlabisa.

He said instead of decisive action against prominent ANC members, Ramaphosa’s report offers a vague response.

“We fear that the commitments made by the president in relation to ‘dealing with the perpetrators and enablers of state capture and corruption, righting the wrongs from the abuse of state power and institutions and reforms to prevent, detect and prosecute future occurrences of state capture and corruption’ are merely empty promises.”

When it comes to accountability and consequences, much still needed to be done, said Hlabisa, noting that the NPA was “woefully under-capacitated” for the responsibility, which includes 202 recommendations with respect to criminal investigation and possible prosecution of individuals, entities and named groups of people.

The Freedom Front Plus said while Ramaphosa spoke “very eloquently”, he merely put forward obvious principles for good governance.  

FF Plus leader Pieter Groenewald said the country’s hopes that Ramaphosa would use the Zondo commission’s report as a tool to eradicate fraud and corruption in the public sector were dashed “in a way typical of Ramaphosa”.

Groenewald said Ramaphosa reiterated many of the steps that he announced and put in place in 2018, which have failed to prevent corruption during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“It is extremely disappointing. It will not give any corrupt individuals who were involved in state capture any sleepless nights.”

Zondo’s report makes it abundantly clear that the ANC is riddled with state capture and it was mainly caused by cadre deployment, which was headed by Ramaphosa, said Groenewald.

Among implicated members of the executive is ANC national chairperson Gwede Mantashe, who is also the mineral resources and energy minister. Zondo said he should be probed for corruption after he received security installations for no charge from facilities management company Bosasa.

Mantashe was secretary-general of the ANC at the time, which Zondo notes was a “powerful” position given that he was at the helm of the country’s ruling party and was, therefore, close to the decision-making levers of power.

Zondo was also scathing about deputy defence minister Thabang Makwetla’s failure to see how having private security work done at his home by state contractor Bosasa was a conflict of interest.

“Quite frankly, that is scary”, he said.

Zondo also recommended that Ramaphosa consider Zizi Kodwa’s position as deputy minister after his implication in questionable transactions between himself and Jehan Mackay, a former director at technology group EOH.

Water and sanitation deputy minister David Mahlobo is another implicated member of the executive. Zondo found that when he was state security minister, he collected large sums of cash under the guise of an operation, allegedly bound for former president Jacob Zuma.

“Minister Mahlobo handled large sums of cash. For example, based on the evidence, there was a time when he received R2.5m a month, later increased to R4.5m a month, which he allegedly said was for former president Zuma,” said Zondo.

All four have denied any wrongdoing.

Zondo recommended that communication and digital technologies minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni be investigated by law enforcement agencies with a view to prosecution for failing in her fiduciary duties. Ntshavheni served as a Denel board member and member of the SOE’s risk and audit committee which made the decision to suspend and fire three Denel executives in 2015.

According to Zondo, the decision was flawed and the executives ended up accepting golden handshakes amounting to millions of rand to walk away, without a disciplinary process against them.

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