State capture losses ‘could have doubled grants’
THE state could have doubled social grants with the money estimated to have been lost to state capture, ANC MP Pravin Gordhan has said.
Speaking at the Daily Maverick The Gathering event, Gordhan said estimates of what was lost to state capture varied, but some estimated this number at about R100-billion.
Asked what he could have done with this money as finance minister, he said the amount represented 9% of total government expenditure and could have doubled social grants.
“Social grants are about R110- to R120-billion of expenditure – we could have doubled them,” he said.
Gordhan said he had been surprised by the scale and the impunity with which state capture had taken place.
His former deputy, Mcebisi Jonas, said the fact that they had been in government and had not known the extent of the problem pointed to the fact that those in government “are not holding the power”.
“Those that run the country are unelected,” did not care about the economy and concerned themselves with “personal accumulation instead”, he said.
Both were critical of the ANC and the government.
Gordhan said “you can’t have an environment where everything you do diminishes confidence”.
But while some would see this as “talking ill of the ANC outside its ranks”, he said it was about being selfcritical. Jonas, meanwhile, said he had been surprised to hear ANC chief whip Jackson Mthembu speaking about regulating the media when “we should deal with the credibility of the state and of the ruling party and leadership first”.
Jonas said there needed to be a concerted effort in time to come to protect state institutions, as they were all vulnerable.
“State capture has no holy cows,” he said.
He said the “criminal justice system is completely paralysed in dealing with state capture”.
“The judiciary remains strong, but for how long?”
He said it was possible that the IEC and the PIC, which manages state pensions, could also be vulnerable, as the focus of state capture was accumulating wealth and power.