Cyril Ramaphosa must appear before the Zondo Commission to account for the ANC’s role in State Capture

29 August 2018

The DA welcomes the early progress made by the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into State Capture, led by Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, and will keenly monitor its progress to ensure that the full extent of State Capture is laid bare.

We commend those who have already testified before the commission, notably former Deputy Minister of Finance, Mcebisi Jonas. Indeed, his explosive testimony on 24 August confirmed what the DA knew already: that South Africa’s law enforcement agencies were captured and that complaints laid against those involved in State Capture, specifically those lodged by the DA, were purposefully sabotaged or neglected by those tasked with investigating them.

With several current and former members of the ANC-led administration set to testify this week, the DA would like to put forward the following list of individuals who must appear before the Commission:

- Former Minister of Mineral Resources, Mosebenzi Zwane, who allegedly helped the Guptas defraud the Estina Dairy Farm project as Free State MEC for Agriculture;

- Current Minister of Home Affairs, Malusi Gigaba, who facilitated the early naturalisation of the Guptas;

- Former Minister of Finance, Des van Rooyen, who Jonas confirmed was appointed to replace axed Nhlanhla Nene to allegedly fast-track the nuclear build deal;

- Former Minister of Public Enterprises, Lynne Brown, whose tenure coincided with the large-scale looting of our state-owned entities;

- Former SARS Commissioner, Tom Moyane, whose disastrous tenure at the tax-collecting agency coincided with the disabling of SARS’s investigative capacity and plummeting revenue collection; and

- Former head of the State Security Agency, Arthur Fraser, and his political principal, David Mahlobo, who allegedly used the agency to target those who resisted the State Capture project

Furthermore, we cannot allow the Zondo Commission to overlook the evidence of State Capture at Metro level. Indeed, the cities of Johannesburg, Tshwane and Nelson Mandela Bay were all looted during the height of State Capture. The DA is able and willing to provide the Commission with all the evidence we uncovered after taking over these metros in 2016.

Ultimately, the former and current presidents of the ANC, Jacob Zuma and Cyril Ramaphosa, were in charge of the government the Party led during the height of State Capture. They must both be called to testify before the Zondo Commission so that we may learn what role they played.

It is important to remember that it was the former Public Protector, Adv Thuli Madonsela, and not the ANC, who instructed the president to appoint, within 30 days, a commission of inquiry headed by a judge solely selected by the Chief Justice in her State of Capture report released in October 2016. It has taken an enormous amount of time and work to get to this point, and we cannot allow the Zondo Commission to leave any stones unturned. There can be no holy cows.

Issued by John Steenhuisen, Chief Whip of the Democratic Alliance, 29 August 2018