An 874-page report on corruption under the presidency of Jacob Zuma (2009-2018) was released on January 5, 2022. Containing four years of testimony, this report is the conclusion of “four grueling years”said Judge Raymond Zondo, who chairs the commission of inquiry. More than 270 witnesses, ex-ministers, elected officials, businessmen, senior officials or whistleblowers, unpacked the dirty laundry of the Zuma era.
Former South African President Jacob Zuma is accused of plundering public funds with the help of siblings of Indian businessmen, the Gupta, until his party the ANC pushes him to resign. The Gupta brothers have paid bribes in particular to influence ministerial appointments and senior officials, say many witnesses. They fled South Africa shortly after the commission’s work began in August 2018.
Among the many testimonies, that of the businessman Angelo Agrizzi, who tells about a whole underground world of bags filled with tickets and secret meetings in luxury hotels for bigwigs of the ANC to touch bribes. – wine in exchange for government contracts.
Several witnesses also mentioned the audit of a major social housing asbestos removal project in the Free State (center): the work never took place and ten million dollars disappeared. These testimonies helped indict in November 2020 Ace Magashule, former Prime Minister of this province and sulphurous secretary general of the ANC.
Even more worrying, the budgets of the public electricity (Eskom) and airline (SAA) companies were literally sucked up by the Zuma clan, which took control of the powerful anti-corruption service (SARS) within the ministry. finances. We can read in the report that Tom Moyane, appointed by Jacob Zuma in September 2014 as head of SARS, had succeeded in dismissing 55 senior executives from the management of this organization. According to the ratings, “SARS presented a danger to those involved in corruption and organized crime and was therefore a target”.
In addition, the briefing details the influence of the Guptas, with the help of Jacob Zuma, which has spread to the entire public sector with the strategy of replacing civil servants who did not comply with their plunder plan. . In particular, it shows how the Gupta brothers-owned media company, The New Age, captured the public resources of ministries and state-owned enterprises through advertising and sponsorship worth hundreds of millions of rand.
“This is a watershed moment in our efforts to bring an end to the era of state corruption and restore the integrity, credibility and capacity of our institutions and, most importantly, our government.”
Cyril Ramaphosa, President of South Africato AFP
Jacob Zuma, 79, stepped up to avoid testifying before the commission of inquiry, which resulted in him being sentenced in June to fifteen months in prison for obstructing justice. His imprisonment in July sparked unprecedented riots in the country, which left 350 dead. He has been on parole since September “for medical reasons”.
“The most devastating and lasting cost” of this widespread corruption going back to the top of the state “is the loss of confidence of citizens in their leaders”, stressed President Ramaphosa upon receipt of the report. The latter will have to decide and announce to Parliament by the end of June what follow-up to give to this report. The next two sections will be published at the end of January, then at the end of February. If the commission has only an advisory role, its conclusions can be transmitted to the public prosecutor’s office for possible prosecution.