EDITORIAL | The state capture inquiry has been expensive, but important

A collective sigh of frustration sounded through SA last week when deputy chief justice Raymond Zondo filed urgent court papers seeking another extension to complete the work of the state capture inquiry. It has been a pricey exercise, running to about R1bn, with the highest-paid senior counsel costing as much as R38,000 a day. These are numbers that make eyes water in a country where a fifth of the population lives below the extreme poverty line of just more than R600 a month. Has the commission’s work been worth it? This is the question we need to ask ourselves before judging the judge.

Zondo, in his umpteenth request for an extension, pleaded for more time - until December 31 - to complete the three-year investigation. The previous extension expires on September 30. Zondo said he had hoped to have the first draft done by the end of June, the second by August and the third and final drafts by mid-September. But he had made an error in the estimation of how long the drafting of the reports would take, adding that one of his team members had been off sick for a month, further delaying the process.

Only once SA has seen the final report and, more importantly, witnessed state capture culprits being brought to book, will we know if this exercise was worth the money and time.

“When I made the assessment that my team and I should be able to complete the report by the end of September, I did so on the basis of the time I believed it would take to complete the first drafts and the time it would take for us to complete the second drafts and the third drafts ... I need to point out that the amount of work involved under the different topics or work streams is not the same. The work involves the preparation of summaries and analysis of evidence led over a period of three years, in which more than 330 witnesses testified,” he said in court papers.

The deputy chief justice states emphatically the work will not be done by end-September, a fact that would be hard for the courts to ignore when the matter is heard on September 28. Zondo, however, appears to be ignoring former finance minister Tito Mboweni’s warning in February that National Treasury is done allocating more money to the commission. “This perpetual extension of the inquiry into state capture is not really conducive. They must finish their work. In fact their work in my view is much less than the work that was done by the commission of inquiry into the Public Investment Corporation,” said Mboweni. “The PIC commission of inquiry has concluded and this one just keeps going on and on, so it must end at some stage ... They must finish their work.”

At the time, National Treasury director-general Dondo Mogajane made a valid point when he said the high legal fees the commission paid its lawyers needed to be reviewed. That should be a strong consideration if Zondo does walk away with another extension. Only once SA has seen the final report and, more importantly, witnessed state capture culprits being brought to book, will we know if this exercise was worth the money and time.

But for a moment, think back to where SA was, not so long ago, in 2017. Today Sunday Times Daily runs an extract of Joining the Dots: The unauthorised biography of Pravin Gordhan, by Jonathan Ancer and Chris Whitfield, a timely reminder of where SA was just four years ago. We were in a very dark place, where the finance and deputy finance ministers got called back from a crucial international conference. Here, Gordhan and Mcebisi Jonas were determined to try to save SA’s junk status reputation among foreign investors. Instead, the state capture-accused former president, Jacob Zuma, thought it fit to fire the pair, swiftly moving Malusi Gigaba into the powerful position of finance minister.

Today it is thanks to the evidence led before the Zondo commission that the extent of the Gupta family’s influence over Gigaba has been exposed. Thanks to the work of this commission, the overwhelming scale of corruption involving state entities in the Zuma years has been laid bare. It is probably SA’s most important body of work since the dawn of democracy. If one more extension will allow Zondo to complete it properly, South Africans shouldn’t sigh too heavily.