The architects of state capture must be captured and jailed!

South Africa can no longer ignore the urgent need for a judicial commission of inquiry into state capture. We demand a full and swift investigation, led by an independent investigation team, and we demand it now – and then we must ensure that those involved in state capture are themselves captured and sent to jail.

In the space of a week, South Africa has witnessed:

First-hand testimony on the scale and impact of state capture from senior government leaders and officials, through the SA Council of Churches’ “unburdening process”.

Detailed academic research to back up that state capture is effectively a “silent coup”, through the Public Affairs Research Institute (PARI) report “Betrayal of the Promise: How South Africa is being stolen”.

Growing evidence in parliamentary portfolio committees of the deep rot at key state-owned entities such as Eskom and Denel, and the complicity of government leaders.

On top of this, this week Cosatu has banned Zuma from addressing its events and two important voices within the ANC Alliance have spoken out about the devastating impact of state capture, Zuma’s role in facilitating this, and the need for urgent action to stop it:

The South African Communist Party imbizo on state capture, held over the weekend, which endorsed and embraced many of the key elements of our “minimum demands” – including the call for an inquiry into state capture and a proper investigation into corruption at state-owned companies.

The ‘101+ Veterans and Stalwarts”, whose “Urgent letter to the ANC NEC” calls on the ANC to “remove from Government all those who are party to state capture, saying: “In particular, the ANC should seriously consider recalling the President as Head of State and of Government.”

All this comes against the background of last year’s Public Protector’s report, State of Capture, which continues to hang like a bad smell over Zuma and his network of cronies and compradors.

The evidence is insurmountable. The need for a proper investigation into state capture is unquestionable. Zuma must go, and take his cronies with him!

For several months, the Save South Africa campaign has referred to state capture as a “silent coup”, and – through our minimum demands for a socially just South Africa – have intensified our call for action to stop state capture through a judicial commission of enquiry, as well as a number of minimum demands – including that Zuma and the Guptas must have their passports confiscated until all allegations them have been tested.

This is confirmed in the PARI report, which states: “The Zuma-centred power elite has built and consolidated a symbiotic relationship between the constitutional state and the shadow state in order to execute the silent coup.

“At the nexus of this symbiosis are a handful of the same individuals and companies connected in one way or another to the Gupta-Zuma family network. The way that this is strategically coordinated constitutes the shadow state.

“This is a world where deniability is valued, culpability is distributed (though indispensability is not taken for granted) and where trust is maintained through mutually binding fear. Unsurprisingly, therefore, the shadow state is not only the space for extra-legal action facilitated by criminal networks, but also where key security and intelligence actions are coordinated.”

The evidence is there. What we need is action to stop it. We call on others to back our list of minimum demands, and to back them now.

It is clear that there should only be one thing on the ANC leadership’s mind this weekend: taking Jacob Zuma down before he takes the entire country – and the ANC – down with him.

The time for decisive action is now!

Statement issued by Save SA, 26 May 2017