FURTHER STATE CAPTURE WOULD BE A TRAVESTY

PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa boldly told members of Parliament yesterday that “the days of state capture are over”.

Ramaphosa’s comments come as the Zondo Commission has been given until next month to wrap up its work.

This week, Justice and Correctional Service Minister Ronald Lamola indicated that his department had begun feeling the financial crunch of the commission, saying it had become too costly with money being constantly diverted from other government programmes to fund it.

Considering that the commission was established almost three years ago, many citizens have come face to face with the reality that the capture and looting of the country’s state organs has been systematic over many years.

This then begs the question: How many years will it now take for the government to completely clear out any remnants of state capture?

Furthermore, are the days of state capture truly over, as indicated by Ramaphosa?

While National Director of Public Prosecutions Shamila Batohi has told Parliament that they have been receiving “vast and voluminous data from the commission, which requires investigators to analyse and sift through it”, one wonders what work has been done over the past two-and-a-half years.

Unfortunately, Batohi’s office can’t spend the next two years analysing any more data when it is blatantly clear that it has voluminous information to work with.

In fact, the following should be taking place over the next few weeks: The National Prosecuting Authority as well as Lamola’s office should be intensifying their efforts to establish policies that will help them deal with state capture-related cases, and the immediate prosecution of those found wanting. Batohi should take South Africans into her confidence and give regular updates on the work that the authority has made in prosecuting people. We need more visibility from her office, as well as the Hawks.

In addition, we need to start seeing the worth of the R800 million that has been spent so far on the commission.

Should this not happen, history is likely to repeat itself, and this time it’s not guaranteed that any state organs will survive another round of looting.