Burning questions remain as curtain falls on state capture inquiry

After three years and almost R1bn spent, the curtain came down on the high stakes inquiry into state capture with President Cyril Ramaphosa's testimony on Thursday.

While Ramaphosa may not necessarily be the last witness on the stand, according to the chairperson of the inquiry, deputy chief justice Raymond Zondo, he was most likely the last such high-profile politician to take the stand.

And beyond the last word uttered by a witness at the commission as it prepares to give a report on the period that saw state institutions looted and hollowed out, questions will remain whether the money spent on the inquiry was worth it.

There will also be questions on whether Ramaphosa will act on its findings and recommendations on corruption that had plagued the country over the years.

In his last day on the stand on Thursday, Ramaphosa was again questioned on what he had known and done about state capture. He was a deputy president under former president Jacob Zuma from 2014 to 2018 and head of state thereafter.

Government entities including the State Security Agency (SSA), Eskom, Transnet and the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) had been mired in corruption running into billions of rand over the so-called Zuma years where the Gupta family remain accused of being at the heart of state capture allegations and of using their proximity to Zuma to allegedly loot the state.

Since its commencement in 2018, the commission has heard explosive evidence of how the co-ordinated looting of the state and repurposing of its various entities had been run into the ground and repurposed for nefarious political ends under Zuma, in what came to be characterised as the state capture project.

After more than 400 hearings and hundreds of witnesses, Zondo revealed that the commission had planned to wrap up its oral evidence with Ramaphosa.

Ramaphosa, who spent most of his first day indicating he avoided being “confrontational” with Zuma from 2014 to 2018 or that he was kept in the dark about many of the dubious activities, said he has to be judged on his presidential tenure and on the measures he continues to put in place to reverse deliberate governance failings and capture of the state.

He said the progress his administration had made since he took over had to stand as a testimony of “my commitment and the commitment of the administration that I lead to deal decisively with corruption and state capture”.

Among other thorny questions Ramaphosa was quizzed on was his decision to move the SSA into the presidency.

The commission has previously heard how the SSA had been used for ANC factional purposes and to target opponents under Zuma.

Ramaphosa said he had decided to centralise the intelligence services in a bid to restore confidence in its role to act in the nation’s interests and “never to be seen to be serving certain sections of our nation”.

He said his decision to centralise intelligence had been misunderstood as centralising power, creating a dictatorship and “creating a super presidency”. .

He dismissed allegations that he was planning to use the intelligence services to target his political rivals.

Ramaphosa, however, has indicated that he would wait for the final verdict of the inquiry into state capture before reconsidering some of the appointments he made of people who were implicated in allegations within his national executive and top public service posts.

These included former intelligence minister and current deputy water and sanitation minister David Mahlobo, as well as former SSA director-general and current correctional services commissioner Arthur Fraser. The pair have been implicated in allegations of corruption and impropriety relating to the SSA.

“I want to wait for the outcome of the commission’s report,” Ramaphosa said.

Zondo pointed out that he was considering allowing further testimonies of some of the people who had asked to give evidence, despite his initial plan to wrap up the commission’s evidence with Ramaphosa.