Ramaphosa Appears Before Zondo Commission and Lambasts Corruption and State Capture


By Oliver Ngwenya    28-Apr-2021 16:21 UTC+02:00

President Ramaphosa has appeared before Zondo Commission to give evidence. Photo: Daily Maverick

Corruption in the country has taken its toll on society and the economy. This was said by the President of the Republic of South Africa and ANC President, Cyril Ramaphosa as he opened his stint of giving evidence to the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture, which is being chaired by Deputy Chief Justice, Raymond Zondo.

President Ramaphosa, who is giving evidence to the commission as the president of the ANC, arrived at the venue in Braamfontein around 10:00am accompanied by his wife, Dr. Tshepo Motsepe. He opened his session, which is due to be completed on Thursday if it goes according to plan by saying that he was appearing before the Commission to help it in every way he could to ensure that it fulfilled its mandate and not to give excuses and to defend the indefensible. “My submissions and other submissions made on behalf of the ANC, are therefore intended to provide whatever information, context, and explanation the commission may require,” he added.

The president then went on to add that corruption and state capture had eroded the values of our society and had taken its toll on the economy, adding that if allowed to continue, it threatened the growth, development, and transformation of the country.

Meanwhile, the leader of the Democratic Alliance, John Steenhuisen has welcomed the appearance of Cyril Ramaphosa at the Zondo Commission, saying that it gave deputy Chief Justice Zondo the perfect opportunity to “expose and outlaw cadre deployment.” He was referring to the adoption that was made by the ruling party at its conference in Mafikeng in 1997 which stated that key positions in all organs of the state must be filled by those individuals who are party loyalists who are at the beck and call of the party so that the party can retain control of all levers of power. Steenhuisen added that this had resulted in the four evils that had dogged the country in the recent past, that is, incompetence, corruption, capture, and impunity. “SA needs full transparency on exactly how our state became captured, including the extent to which Ramaphosa knew about and influenced the course of state capture and why he has made no move to end cadre deployment, the DA leader added in a media article on Wednesday.


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