A TRC of the Zuma years: was it all worth it?
South Africa’s Judicial Commission of Inquiry into State Capture, known as the Zondo commission, recently handed over the fourth part of its voluminous and scathing findings to President Cyril Ramaphosa.
It had to determine if there were facts relevant for prosecutorial purposes related to alleged state capture and corruption during the reign of former president Jacob Zuma.
For years, many of the leading figures in state capture tried to vilify investigative journalists, NGOs and researchers who exposed their actions.
The Zondo commission, however, followed the procedures of formal investigations, leading evidence, interrogating almost 300 witnesses and allowing for responses by the implicated.
Cross-examination was used to test the evidence.
All of this was done under the authority of the then deputy chief justice, Raymond Zondo. Though not a court of law, it is difficult to question the credibility of the commission’s procedures and its outcomes.
South Africans can no longer claim not to know what happened during former president Jacob Zuma’s ruinous reign from May 2009 to February 2018.
The financial price paid, the decay within state institutions and the demise of ethical public service are all products of this era.
Similar to the earlier Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), which investigated the violence and human rights abuses during apartheid, many South Africans will continue to be sceptical. Like the TRC, this commission will probably receive more accolades from outside than inside this country.
The public nature of its processes and daily broadcasts for almost four years on national television contributed much to the public now having a much clearer understanding of the nature of corruption in the country.
During the Zuma years, state capture as a concept was often discredited. More recently, Zuma dismissed it as a political campaign against him.
State capture, the commission in the end conceptualised, was not only corruption in the public sector or about the relationship between Zuma’s family and the Guptas. It was also about ANC politicians infiltrating state institutions for own benefit.
It was about how politicians used their positions in these institutions to develop a corrupt relationship with the private sector, both local and international, and share the material gains.
These included Bosasa, KPMG, McKinsey, Trillian Capital, Bell Pottinger and several banks.
The commission exposed how these politicians appointed supporters to key criminal justice, revenue service and intelligence institutions.
The police would protect the politicians against investigations and also be used to discredit Zuma’s opponents in the ANC.