Ramaphosa’s slow response, NPA troubles could derail anti-graft plan

Anti-corruption activists are worried that President Cyril Ramaphosa’s slow response on reports, coupled with uncertainty at the National Prosecuting Authority could take the wind out of the sails of the national campaign against graft.

With the state having splurged more than R57 billion on state capture-related contracts, anti-corruption experts have expressed concern at the possibility Ramaphosa will take months to apply his mind before acting on
the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture report, due to be handed to him next month.

Acting Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, who has interviewed more than 278 witnesses and collected 159 109 pages of evidence, will on 1 January hand over his report to Ramaphosa.

It implicates several high-profile individuals, including ANC bigwigs.

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Said Corruption Watch executive director David Lewis: “Let’s see whether heads are going to roll after the president is handed the report by the acting chief justice.

“The concern is that the president has a history of acting quite slowly on reports, because when a matter is submitted to him, he takes a long time to apply his mind to it.

“People implicated by the Zondo commission may try to interdict the report from being released, which might put the cat among the pigeons.”

Lewis said the scourge of corruption in SA was alarming.

“We might be less corrupt than Russia and more corrupt than New Zealand – but corruption in SA is something big enough to be worried about, as we stand in the middle of Transparency International tables.”

As South Africa yesterday marked International Anti-Corruption Day, analysts also pointed to weaknesses in the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) – hit by the recent resignation of the head of its Investigating Directorate, advocate Hermione Cronje – for failure to prosecute in “low hanging fruit” cases.

On the NPA, Lewis said the authority’s national director, advocate Shamila Batohi, inherited “a very damaged organisation, with its competence being in question and some of its senior officials having been implicated in state
capture”.

“She has a difficult job and they have to produce prosecutions quite soon, having failed to do so on low-hanging fruit cases,” said Lewis.

The Cronje resignation was “significant, because she was highly regarded as head of the Investigating Directorate”.

“What we don’t know is what led to her departure – with rumours ranging from insufficient government support, to the deterioration of personal relations with Batohi.

“If it was about insufficient support from government, it would be scandalous, after spending millions to set up an independent directorate,” he said.

Cabinet has reported that the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) instituted a number of cases in the high court and Special Tribunal, with 56 cases involving irregularl awarded state contracts totalling R62 billion – pending as far back as 31 March.

There were 64 cases in the Special Tribunal, which involved contracts amounting to R6.99 billion, which formed the subject of litigation by the SIU, with the unit having already frozen pension benefits of former civil servants,
bank accounts, assets and businesses – amounting to more than R43 billion.

Ilse Salzwedel, author of Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse’s newly launched book Permitted Plundering: How Parliament Failed South Africa, said the NPA “should not be waiting for the Zondo commission report before
acting”.

Salzwedel said: “Nothing ever said that the Zondo commission, investigation and prosecution by the NPA can’t run parallel to each other.

“Take Dudu Myeni and the SAA corruption – when the high court declared Myeni a delinquent director, the judge explicitly said that the NPA should investigate and prosecute her criminally.

“Yet, nothing has happened. How does the NPA and advocate Batohi explain all the evidence they are sitting on?,” she asked.

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“While the Zondo commission report will lead to bigger things and prosecutions, there are things that can be done – not depending on the NPA.

“These include the blacklisting of certain individuals from ever dealing with government again.

“We just need to keep up the pressure on government.”

A better future for all?

• The Zondo commission ought to be a game-changer for the future trajectory of South Africa.
• The second game-changer is the commission’s report, currently under preparation, on what must be done to prevent the conditions that allowed serious corruption with impunity to flourish during, in particular, the wasted Zuma years.
• The dissonance between the well-known tenets of the National Democratic Revolution, which motivate the tripartite ANC Alliance, and the values and principles of the constitution must end.
• The report concerns what needs to be done to prevent the conditions on the ground that have allowed serious corruption with impunity to flourish.
• These abuses of power have worsened the plight of the poor, swelled the ever-increasing levels of unemployment and exacerbated inequality.

– Paul Hoffman Accountability Now