The latest report of the State Capture Commission provides the most damning confirmation yet that the ANC is now little more than an organised crime syndicate masquerading as a political party.
From overseeing corruption at state-owned enterprises and benefitting from corrupt tenders in the Free State and Johannesburg, to using BOSASA to manage its 2014 election “war room,” the role of the ANC in orchestrating state capture is the one common thread that binds together all three volumes of the Commission’s reports released to date.
The damning findings contained in the third volume of the report make it more urgent than ever that all South Africans unite behind the DA’s pending parliamentary motion of no confidence in the entire Cabinet.
In the latest report, which deals with BOSASA’s role in capturing the state through the ANC, the State Capture Commission directly implicates the governing party in acts of corruption.
The report finds that the ANC accepted substantial financial and other support from BOSASA for the party’s 2014 election “war room.”
It notes that BOSASA provided this assistance to the ANC to ensure that “the ANC would remain the majority party and thus in a position to appoint to positions of public office, persons whom BOSASA was able to influence or would seek to influence.”
Again flagging the role of the ANC system of cadre deployment in facilitating state capture, the Commission also notes that BOSASA’s assistance to the ANC was designed to ensure that “members of the ANC deployed to senior positions…would remain well-disposed to BOSASA.”
The report concludes that “there is a reasonable prospect” that an investigation of senior ANC officials will “uncover a prima facie case and the matter is referred for further investigation accordingly.”
The Commission further personally implicates Gwede Mantashe, one of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s closest allies who is also the current national chairperson of the ANC and the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy in Ramaphosa’s Cabinet.
In respect of Mantashe, the report recommends that he be investigated for “the offence of corruption” after BOSASA provided him with “free” security upgrades at three of his properties.
The report concludes that “the provision of free security installation was manifestly part of the corrupt modus operandi of BOSASA,” and that they were provided in order to secure Mantashe’s “influence.”
Also directly implicated is Nomvula Mokonyane, who is currently the ANC’s head of organising at Luthuli House.
The Commission finds that Mokonyane “breached her Constitutional and legislative duties as well as ethical obligations” when she accepted “gratification from BOSASA.” The report recommends that she be charged and prosecuted for corruption.
The same goes for the ANC’s Cedric Frolick, who currently serves in a senior capacity in Parliament.
The report finds that Frolick not likely tried to “shield” and “protect” his friend, former BOSASA CEO Gavin Watson, but that Frolick facilitated “the unlawful award of tenders” and refers him for further investigation on charges of money laundering, corruption and fraud.
In rounding off its clean sweep of findings against all factions and corners of the ANC, the report also confirms BOSASA-related corruption on the parts of former ANC President Jacob Zuma and his closest ally, Dudu Myeni, and refers them both for investigation and criminal prosecution.
From the ANC as an organisation, to its current chief organiser, its current sitting chairperson, its current senior office-holder in Parliament to currently-serving Ministers and its former President, the cumulative effect of the three reports of the State Capture Commission released so far confirm that the ANC itself is the true cause of state capture in South Africa.
The implication is clear: if we wish to eradicate state capture, we must remove the ANC’s grip from political power.
For President Ramaphosa, the moment of truth has arrived.
Will he hold his own political party and his numerous political allies implicated in corruption by the report to account?
Will he fire the Cabinet that has failed our country?
Will he put the interests of justice and of South Africans before or all else, or will he once again sacrifice South Africa’s needs at the altar of ANC unity?
For the sake of South Africa, it is time for Ramaphosa to choose our country over the criminal syndicate masquerading as a political party.