South Africa releases damning report into Zuma-era graft
South Africa’s Chief Justice Raymond Zondo
has released a final and damning report after a long-running inquiry into
influence-peddling and corruption during former President Jacob Zuma’s nine
years in office.
It recommends several high-ranking officials
face investigation and prosecution.
Acting Chief Justice Zondo late Wednesday
gave the final report on the plunder of state resources under Zuma to his
former deputy and successor, President Cyril Ramaphosa.
The latest installment of the five-part
report focused on alleged wrongdoing by the state security agency and at the
public broadcaster and other state-owned enterprises.
It said Zuma’s former spy chief should be
prosecuted for graft and targeting the president’s foes.
It also found that Zuma’s son, Duduzane,
acted as a conduit between the wealthy Gupta family — business friends of
Zuma’s whose influence over the president was said to amount to state
capture. The report said Duduzane should also be investigated.
Ramaphosa said the inquiry had presented
evidence of abuse of power and praised the whistleblowers and journalists who
helped uncover it.
“State capture was an assault on our
democracy and violated the rights of every man, woman and child in this
country," he said.
Previous parts of the report recommended Zuma
be further investigated with a view towards prosecution and that the Guptas and
several ministers face prosecution.
Two of the Gupta brothers were arrested in
Dubai this month and are facing extradition to South Africa.
The inquiry ran for almost four years, with
South Africans watching the daily televised hearings shocked by repeated
witness testimony on corruption at the highest levels of government.
Zondo spoke of some of the challenges the
commission had faced while probing the graft.
“A few members of the legal team that I know
went through situations when their security needed to be beefed up because of
the work that they do, that they did, in the commission,” he said.
Ramaphosa said the inquiry was vital to
ensuring the survival of South Africa’s democracy.
“The report is far more than a record of
widespread corruption, fraud and abuse; it is also an instrument through which
the country can work to ensure that such events are never allowed to happen
again,” he said.
But the report was also critical of Ramaphosa
as Zuma’s deputy for failing to do more against “state capture.”
It was also highly critical of the ruling
African National Congress (ANC) party.
Independent political analyst Ralph Mathekga
praised the inquiry for surviving political attempts to interfere with the
process.
“The major finding actually here is that the
ANC dropped the ball, the ANC-led government, the state capture inquiry speaks
about major lapses in governance,” he said. “President Jacob Zuma comes out as
the chief suspect.”
Zuma, who was forced to step down in 2018, is
already facing trial on multiple counts of corruption in a separate case. He’s
denied all wrongdoing.
Spokesman for the Jacob Zuma Foundation
Mzwanele Jimmy Manyi told VOA the report was “a lot of hogwash.”
Ramaphosa has four months to make his
recommendations to parliament on what action must be taken. South Africans will
be waiting to see what arrests and prosecutions might follow.
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