Johannesburg - The Congress of the People (Cope) has renewed its calls for President Cyril Ramaphosa to implement the recommendations of the Zondo Commission Report, which cost taxpayers R1 billion.
The party yesterday said it is disturbed and is starting to doubt that Ramaphosa is really serious about implementing the recommendations of the Zondo Commission Report.
Cope pointed out that the report was handed over to Ramaphosa more than a year ago, and not a single criminal who is fingered in the report is behind bars.
Chief Justice Raymond Zondo made a wide range of recommendations in the final report, ranging from the direct election of the president by the people to the formation of a permanent anti-state capture and corruption commission and a body that should oversee the appointment of state-owned enterprise (SOE) board chairpersons and executives. The report also recommended that there be direct imprisonment for individuals found guilty of corruption.
In December last year, ANC delegates elected two individuals fingered in the report to form part of the Top 7 leadership positions, including Nomvula Mokonyane, 1st deputy SG, and Gwede Mantashe, re-elected as chairperson.
On April 21, 2023, Acting Judge Nompumelelo Gusha delivered a devastating blow to the NPA by acquitting all the Nulane trial accused and dismissing all fraud and money-laundering charges against them. She found that the state had failed to tie alleged Gupta-linked Iqbal Sharma and his co-accused to any of the crimes related to the Nulane case. She also ruled there wasn’t a shred of evidence that pointed to one accused, the former head of agriculture in the Free State, Limakatsho Moorosi, being implicated in the crimes.
The cases were allegedly linked to state capture in that the fraud and money laundering charges were for allegedly colluding with Free State officials to defraud the state of close to R25 million after Nulane secured a contract to conduct a feasibility study for a rural development project in the province.
‘’We want to warn Ramaphosa that history will judge him very harshly if he thinks that he can sweep the report under the carpet to protect and hide some of his comrades from going to prison,’’ said Cope national spokesperson Dennis Bloem.
Bloem further said: ‘’Ramaphosa promised the country that all those who have crippled the economy of the country by stealing millions of taxpayers' money will face the full might of the law, but it really does not look like that.’’
He said the recommendations in the report are very clear and straightforward on who must be criminally charged and why.
‘’The country is sitting with an unprecedented unemployment crisis, especially amongst the youth. Almost all SOEs are destroyed by state capture and corruption, and some senior politicians were fingered.’’
‘’The devastating load shedding that the country is going through is because Eskom is destroyed by state capture and corruption,’’ Bloem said.
He said Cope believes that Zondo and the commission have done their best to produce a concrete report with recommendations and expose the level of corruption that took place in government and the private sector.
‘’Cope and the people of the country want to see arrests. We want to see criminals in orange uniforms. We want to see all the stolen money recovered and all assets confiscated,’’ Bloem said.
However, Ramaphosa’s spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya, came to the defence of his principal.
Magwenya said last year, in October, the president tabled the government's implementation plan on the Zondo Commission to Parliament.
‘’The president detailed actions that were already underway, including arrests and cases that were already on the court roll. Not a single political party in Parliament objected to that plan. I'm not sure what facts inform Cope's utterances. The NPA has set up the Investigative Directorate (ID) specifically to deal with state capture cases. The government is in the process of finalising the institutionalisation of the ID as a permanent entity within the NPA. The ID will continue dealing with state capture-related cases as part of the broader law enforcement effort,’’ said Magwenya.
Recently, political analyst Professor Sipho Seepe said he did not think anyone takes the Zondo Commission seriously.
The Star