Baldwin Ndaba and Loyiso Sidimba
Johannesburg - Pressure is mounting on law enforcement agencies to arrest and prosecute all those implicated in the first Zondo report on state capture handed over to President Cyril Ramaphosa on Tuesday.
Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo – who chaired the Judicial commission on allegations of state capture – made damning findings against former president Jacob Zuma, former SAA board chairperson Dudu Myeni, former Sars national commissioner Tom Moyane as well as former Transnet boss Brian Molefe.
Molefe has been referred to law enforcement agencies to conduct further investigation with a view of possible prosecution for fraud and/or contravention of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA).
Justice Zondo found that Molefe made misrepresentation when he claimed that some of the contracts the state-owned freight and rail transport company concluded with Gupta-owned TNA Media to sponsor business breakfasts to the tune of millions of rands, were in fact partnerships, when they were passed as sponsorships.
Several other high profile individuals in various state owned entities were also named in the report, which confirmed there was state capture while Zuma was president of the country between the 2012 and 2016.
More damning was the allegations that SAA was looted for the benefit of Myeni and the Jacob Zuma Foundation.
The report also chronicled how the Gupta-owned newspaper, New Age, financially benefited from various state organs, including the SABC.
Myeni opted not to respond when contacted for comment on Wednesday.
The commission also wants law enforcement agencies and the NPA to tackle malfeasance relating to Gupta lieutenant Eric Wood, businessman Niven Pillay and his company Regiments Capital, former Airports Company SA (Acsa) treasurer Phetolo Ramosebudi and recover the amounts Acsa paid to Regiments and the losses it suffered in the interest swop contracts with Nedbank and Standard Bank.
Parties now want the Hawks and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to act swiftly on the allegations.
On Wednesday, Outa CEO Wayne Duvenage said his organisation believes the report was a momentous occasion for law-abiding citizens of South Africa to celebrate.
“This is what South Africa has been waiting for and now it’s over to the law enforcement agencies to deal with the reams of content contained in the report. South Africans desperately want to see those who transgressed the laws or, were involved in State Capture, held to account and as much as possible of the money stolen, recovered by the State. There should be no room to hide anymore,” said Duvenage.
Saftu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi called for the immediate prosecutions of all those that the Commission was recommending, should face the music.
“We expect a huge backlash from the thieves and the beneficiaries of the looting spree that took place in the South African Airways and its subsidiaries, and other public entities.
“On the one hand, they will drive a propaganda that seeks to delegitimise the findings and recommendations, and capitalise on every weakness to lobby sympathy and support, and on the other, they will brief the best legal counsels domestically and abroad to find faults with the recommendations or contents of the commission, so that they can stall any process to hold them accountable,” he said.
Cope national spokesperson Dennis Bloem said: “Now that the first volume of the report is out in the public, all that is left is to see our law enforcement agencies acting against all the criminals who have destroyed our economy. They must be prosecuted and all their assets must be confiscated.”
The ANC, through its deputy secretary general Jessie Duarte, said they would support the government as it considers the report’s findings and recommendations and undertakes the work necessary to restore good governance and decisively tackle all forms of corruption within the state and across society.
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) remained tight-lipped yesterday on its next course of action following the release of the first of three parts of the commission of inquiry into the state capture report.
Hawks national spokesperson Brigadier Nomthandazo Mbambo told Independent Media that the government’s anti-corruption task team still needed to study the report.
”The report was released only yesterday, it’s still early days and all anti-corruption task team stakeholders still have to go through it, identify elements that require investigation and by which entity. Only then, will we know which cases will be allocated to the Hawks,” Mbambo said.
baldwin.ndaba@inl.co.za
loyiso.sidimba@inl.co.za
Political Bureau