It will take much more than tough talk to implement Zondo’s recommendations
The voluminous 874-page report into allegations of State Capture and corrupt activities in South Africa that was handed over to President Cyril Ramaphosa by acting Chief Justice Raymond Zondo on 4 January is already creating waves indicative of the violent storms to come, concerning any attempt to implement its recommendations. Some of the reactions pre-emptively delegitimise the report – its findings and recommendations.
Mzwanele Manyi, who is among those named in the report as “enablers” of State Capture, came out guns blazing, labelling the report as “nonsense” and “rubbish”.
The report contains eye-popping and damning findings of self-serving politicians who strive for patronage with no accountability, of unscrupulous businesses and individuals in the private sector, as well as of a defective government leadership and ineffective law-enforcement agencies.
The ANC-led government did not escape the wrath of Zondo, who effectively found it complicit in nurturing the capture of stateowned entities.
“These entities did not drop overnight from the internationally highly regarded entities that they once were to what they subsequently became. The decline happened over several years but both the government and the ruling party failed dismally to make any effective interventions to halt the decline. Either they did not care or they slept on the job or they had no clue what to do,” notes the report.
Corruption is a global pandemic and its seedlings can be picked even in the most developed nations. What is important, however, is how seriously the leadership of a country takes corruption and appreciates that tangible efforts must be implemented to combat it instead of being the main actors in the abuse of power for private gain.
I have previously asked whether the Zondo Commission report is destined for the dustbin or the annals of history. The answer lies in the commitment of the government and the ANC towards combating corruption and burying it for good. The report is one of the sternest tests for the government.
To borrow from the 1989 report of Australia’s Commission of Inquiry into Possible Illegal Activities and Associated Police Misconduct, also known as the Fitzgerald Commission report, “The real test of the commitment which has been made to a new era will arise when decisions are made as to who will be responsible for carrying forward the recommendations which are adopted. The need for independent people, drawn from outside the existing bureaucracy, is plain.”
It should come as no surprise that “some people will, for a variety of selfish and genuine reasons, oppose [the] report’s recommendations for reform”.
It would seem that the Zondo report will not be making its way to the dustbin or the giant shredding machine any time soon, and this faint glimmer of hope comes after some of the utterances of Ramaphosa talking tough against corruption and the ANC’s statement on 8 January that, in part, supports the Zondo report.
The statement says the “worrying confluence of subverting actions [is] evinced by the blatant acts of State Capture and criminality described in the report of the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture, the concerted campaign of public violence and destruction that took place in July last year, as well as ongoing acts of wanton theft, destruction and obstruction of vital public and private infrastructure, including communication and logistical networks”.
The statement makes a clarion call to “all South Africans to engage with the … report and to be part of the national effort to put State Capture behind us and build an ethical, capable developmental state and a society governed by the values of our democratic Constitution and the rule of law”.
The President can be assured that some of us have already started to engage with the report and have noted that some of the recommendations it makes are nothing new as far as proposed reforms are concerned. For instance, the report proposed the establishment of an anti-corruption commission.
The establishment of such a commission will never transform SA into a country with a zero tolerance of corruption. The fangs of corruption and associated activities are so deeply anchored in our society that a different, multifaceted approach is needed.
As the starting point, the ANC-led government must declare and decree corruption and State Capture to be a threat to national security. Such an approach was taken on 3 June 2021 by US President Joe Biden, who established the fight against corruption as a core national security interest of the US.
Our government must focus on getting rid of the continuing ineffectiveness of our criminal justice system against corruption, particularly in law-enforcement agencies. Building an anti-corruption agency on a rotten foundation is a disaster waiting to happen. The best we can do as a country before establishing such an agency is to put in place an implementable strategy to prevent and combat corruption and related crimes.
To this end, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and other agencies must fearlessly pursue the enforcement of State Capture, corruption and corrupt practices including money-laundering through the existing legislative framework such as the
Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act 12 of 2004.
It must be evident to every member of our society that South Africa is no longer a haven for kleptocrats and undesirable individuals. Perhaps this is too much to ask of the NPA, because – in December 2021 – its head, Shamila Batohi, warned that an underfunded and overburdened NPA would be unable to prosecute all cases emanating from the Zondo Commission, and would have to pick and choose for maximum impact.
The current bodies tasked to monitor and review the performance of the functions of the law-enforcement agencies are ineffective and useless, unless Parliament has not been taking seriously their reports on matters pertaining to their respective functions.
One must acknowledge that the Zondo report came at a critical time, and its recommendations can spur the ANC-led government to implement changes to the current anti-corruption structure. It is how the government of the Republic of South Africa – both the governing party and the major opposition parties – respond to the report that will tell if 2022 is indeed the year of unity and renewal to defend and advance South Africa’s democratic gains.