Time for a truth and repayment commission

The rot in South Africa is much deeper than we thought, writes Rynier.

Ian Sinton’s revelations about top ANC ministers threatening Standard Bank and putting pressure on the bank’s top management to reverse the decision to close the Gupta accounts is proof that the rot is much deeper than we thought.

We need a new TRC (truth and reconciliation commission), only this time it should be called the truth and repayment commission. We should get Thuli Madonsela to head this commission.

We should give Madonsela her own judges and courts to speed up the process of recovering our lost tax money and put the culprits in jail.

We should give anybody involved in any form of fraud, corruption or money laundering a chance to come clean, repay the money and take their punishment like a man (or woman).

There will be two ways in which South Africa will benefit from this commission.

Firstly, we will recover billions of rands of our tax money lost in fraudulent transactions.

Secondly, we will save billions in future pension payouts that these criminals should forfeit.