Mantashe explains slow government reaction to state capture

ANC chairperson Gwede Mantashe says the ANC-led government took its time to react to the early warnings of state capture because it was busy “theorising” it and decided there must be a commission into state capture.

He was giving evidence at the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture last night.

After questioning by evidenceleader advocate Alec Freund and Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, Mantashe said there was no need to have a parliamentary committee overseeing the president as a sitting president had no portfolio and answered to Parliament as a collective.

Freund put it to Mantashe that there were no adequate institutionalism mechanisms dealing with concerns such as undue pressure on the president regarding Cabinet appointments. But Mantashe said a portfolio committee dedicated to the presidency “would only work for two hours”.

Justice Zondo said that mechanisms always needed to be in place to ensure that every member of the government, including the president, was held accountable.

Before Mantashe’s appearance, the commission received an affidavit by a member of the ANC’s Integrity Commission confirming former president Jacob Zuma was summoned to appear before them in 2016. Zuma allegedly requested that no minutes be taken of the meeting and it not be recorded.

At the meeting, the Integrity Commission told Zuma why they believed he should step down and after two hours of Zuma replying, the commission did not change its mind, the affidavit said.

At his last appearance, Mantashe said that the ANC Integrity Commission recommended Zuma step down in 2013 and it was since then that the ANC had suffered instability.

Mantashe was the third witness to be called at the commission of inquiry yesterday, after Speaker of the National Parliament Thandi Modise and chairperson of the National Council of

Provinces Amos Masondo appeared earlier in the day.

Modise apologised, saying that “Parliament only woke up when things were really bad”.

Modise gave evidence on her parliamentary oversight. She explained how Parliament organised itself to conduct oversights.

She said she did not know why there was no action taken when serious allegations of state capture surfaced.

Modise told the commission that Parliament only really “woke up” after the Constitutional Court’s ruling on upgrades at Zuma’s Nkandla home.

“After the allegations of state capture, it was important for us to begin focusing the committees and Parliament into pointedly being deliberate about following up on issues. And that is what we intend to intensify before this term of Parliament finishes.”

She added that it was also the “Gupta leaks” – a series of emails linking ministers with state capture – that made the allegations more real.

Modise acknowledged that sometimes when allegations surfaced, members of Parliament assumed it could be “politicking” and that got in the way of holding their peers accountable.

Justice Zondo said it was concerning if anybody was trying to intimidate the commission from doing its job. He was commenting after the commission’s Parktown offices were broken into at the weekend.