Zuma’s silent coup
Ultimate prize in betrayal was the Treasury – report
South Africa has experienced a silent coup that has removed the ANC from its place as the primary force for transformation in society.
This is according to a final report into state capture titled “Betrayal of the promise: how South Africa is being stolen”.
The report, which will be released today, was compiled by academics at several institutions, including the universities of Wits, Cape Town and Stellenbosch, among others. It notes that the landing of a Gupta plane at Waterkloof Air Force Base in April 2013 and the cabinet reshuffle are about state capture facilitated by President Jacob Zuma who does not hesitate to abuse his power.
“Resistance and capture is what South African politics is about today,” the report says.
It also cites the attempted bribing of former deputy minister of finance Mcebisi Jonas to sell the National Treasury to the “shadow state” in 2015 as defining this new era.
“Commentators, opposition groups and ordinary South Africans underestimate Jacob Zuma, not simply because he is more brazen, wily and brutal than they expect, but because they reduce him to caricature.
“They conceive Zuma and his allies as a criminal network that has captured the state.
“This is akin to a silent coup.”
The report documents how the Zuma-centred power elite has built and consolidated the symbiotic relationship between the constitutional state and the shadow state in order to execute the silent coup.
“At the nexus of this symbiosis are a handful of the same individuals and companies connected in one way or another to the Gupta-Zuma family network,” the report says.
“Well-placed individuals located in the most significant centres of state make decisions about what happens within the constitutional state.”
Those who resist this agenda, like Jonas, former finance minister Pravin Gordhan, former ANC MP Vytjie Mentor, and former cabinet spokesman Themba Maseko, are removed, redeployed to other lucrative positions to silence them, placed under tremendous pressure or hounded out using trumped-up charges and dubious intelligence reports.
“This is a world where … trust is maintained through mutually binding fear,” it says.
“The ultimate prize was control of the National Treasury to gain control of the financial intelligence centre, the Public Investment Corporation, the boards of key development finance institutions …
“The cabinet reshuffle in March 2017 has made possible this final control of the National Treasury.”
This is a world where trust is maintained by mutually binding fear Report into state capture