NEWS: Zondo: ANC should 'take responsibility' for protecting Zuma, Guptas in Parliament accreditation @Stiano

 

Zondo: ANC should 'take responsibility' for protecting Zuma, Guptas in Parliament

Jan Gerber

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WATCH | 'State capture was an assault on our democracy' says Ramaphosa at Zondo report handover

Chief Justice Raymond Zondo has released the final part of his State Capture Inquiry report to President Cyril Ramaphosa on Wednesday. With this the four-and-a-half-year State Capture Inquiry finally came to an end.

• The ANC caucus should have given former president Jacob Zuma the boot in 2013 already, the Zondo Commission has found.
• The commission says billions of rand could have been saved if the ANC did not block parliamentary inquiries into the Guptas.
• Zondo says the ANC should take responsibility for this.

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The Zondo Commission condemned ANC parliamentary caucuses during the state capture era for not inquiring into the allegations of the Guptas' undue influence and its unwillingness to hold corruption-accused former president Jacob Zuma to account.

On Wednesday evening, Chief Justice Raymond Zondo finally handed over the final parts of his commission's reports to President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Like their predecessors, Part 5 and Part 6 proved to be grim reading for the ANC and several of its high-profile members, including Ramaphosa, who the commission found could have limited the damage caused by state capture had he "acted with more urgency".

Similarly, the commission found if the ANC in Parliament did not oppose the establishment of parliamentary inquiries into state capture, the "Guptas agenda of state capture" could have been scuppered and saved the taxpayers billions of rand.

Ditto if they booted Zuma out through the eight motions of no confidence he faced.

READ | Jacob Zuma damned SA to state capture, but Ramaphosa could have weakened its grip - Zondo

"What needs to be said about the ANC and its contribution to state capture is that it opposed proposals by opposition parties for Parliament to establish public inquiries to investigate allegations of wrongdoing by the Guptas and yet it did not itself make any investigations because it said it did not have the capacity to investigate the allegations against President Zuma and the Guptas," the report read.

In that way, the Guptas continued to pursue state capture to the detriment of the people of South Africa. If the ANC had not opposed the establishment of those inquiries, the Guptas' agenda of state capture could have been stopped and South Africa might not have lost the billions of rand that it lost.

The commission found if the ANC caucus had not protected Zuma and removed him from office; the Guptas would probably have fled South Africa, as they did in 2018, "and therefore would not have looted the way they did".

"The ANC's further contribution to state capture is that when opposition parties tabled motions of no confidence in President Zuma because of the allegations of corruption and state capture and what the Guptas were reported to be doing such as summoning ministers to their home, the ANC protected President Zuma and ensured that he remained in office as president which also meant that the Guptas got more time to pursue state capture and continued to loot taxpayers' money."

Zondo said the ANC must take responsibility for this.