Zondo Commission: a line in the sand, or not?

The Zondo Commission, South Africa’s ambitious project to unravel the networks of state capture in the country, is wrapping up its work. Theo Venter, an independent political and policy specialist and lecturer at the North-West University Business School, takes a look at some of the achievements of the commission thus far, and how its work may influence the future of the country.

- Theo Venter

Following an investigation by former public protector Thuli Madonsela, a report titled ‘State of Capture’ was released in late 2016, and this started a process that would lead to the resignation of former president Jacob Zuma on 14 February 2018. Ironically, just five days before his resignation, Zuma signed and gazetted into being the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture, Corruption and Fraud in the Public Sector, including Organs of State. This became known as the Zondo Commission after its head, Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo.

Since 2018, at enormous expense, the commission has been hard at work to reconstruct the ‘nine lost years’ under Zuma. By the time the final witness, President Cyril Ramaphosa, appeared on 11 and 12 August 2021, the commission had held 429 hearings, generated 777 videos, made 435 transcripts and received 421 affidavits. The affidavits made up 138 019 typed pages and the transcripts added another 76 157. The final report, with recommendations, should be available within the next two months.

UNDERSTANDING STATE CAPTURE

Although he signed the commission into existence following several court challenges, Zuma recently refused to comply as a witness before it, and this led to his 15-month jail sentence. His sentence, which he started serving in Estcourt Prison on 7 July, triggered widespread unrest and looting in KwaZulu-Natal and parts of Gauteng.

The term ‘state capture’ was first used in South Africa between 2013 and 2014, but it was coined by the World Bank around 2001 to describe how oligarchs controlled governments in the highly vulnerable, newly formed states of the former Eastern Bloc following the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the USSR.