The Democratic Alliance (DA) laid criminal charges today (14 November) against President Jacob Zuma, and others, for their role in aiding, promoting and benefiting from State Capture in South Africa.
“President Zuma, the Guptas, and their compromised buddies have run amok over the last few years, abusing their power to make themselves rich, while the majority of South Africans still live in poverty and without the hope of finding a job. From creating “conditional” cabinet appointments, to influencing and fixing government contracts for personal financial benefit – we have seen it all. We cannot sit back while Zuma runs an oligarchy at the expense of our beautiful country. Jacob Zuma and his co-conspirators must now face the legal consequences of their alleged misconduct,” DA leader Mmusi Maimane, outside the Rosebank Police Station.
According to him the State of Capture report by former Public Protector, Adv Thuli Madonsela, provides extensive prima facie evidence of corruption, undue influence and interference by President Zuma, members of the Gupta family and other actors.
“In my affidavit, I set out in detail the potential offenses in terms of relevant legislation. These include (a) general corruption; (b) corrupt activities relating to contracts; (c) contempt, conspiracy and inducement of another person to contravene the POCA Act, and (d) a failure to discharge the legal duty to report corruption transactions. These possible contraventions relate to, amongst others, sections 3, 12(1), 21, and 34(1) & (2) of the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act (POCA), the Public Protector Act, the Intimidation Act and the Public Finance Management Act. The police must now launch an investigation into these criminal charges without delay. We will be closely monitoring the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to ensure that it does its job and President Zuma & Co are fully prosecuted. These are serious charges and we cannot exempt anyone because of the political office they hold.
“We maintain that these charges are not exhaustive, and once a thorough criminal investigation had been conducted into the matter, the total count of charges that could eventually be formulated might number in the hundreds, with the Public Protector’s report only scraping the tip of the iceberg.
“We have requested that, in addition to President Zuma and the Guptas, the police investigate possible wrongdoing on behalf of the board members of Eskom, Mosebenzi Zwane, Salim Essa, Linda Mabaso, Malcolm Mabaso, Eric Wood, Kamal Singhala, Johannes Motseki, Pushpaveni Govender, Des van Rooyen, Duduzane Zuma and others.
Corruption is not a vague and intangible offence. It is neatly articulated in section 3 of the POCA act. And State Capture is simply another term for the calculated, long term project of corruption, which Jacob Zuma, together with his accomplices, have been carrying out for years.The DA will make sure Jacob Zuma, and all those who aid and abet him, are held accountable for their flagrant abuse of power to make themselves rich – at the expense of the poor and the jobless,” said Maimane
