EFF statement on the Public Protector report on CIEX and State of Capture report

20 June 2017

The EFF notes the reports released by the Public Protector in relations to complaints launched to her office. We in particular welcome her decision to challenge Jacob Zuma's application for court review in the State of Capture Report. We also welcome the remedial action on the CIEX report that ABSA must pay back the money that they illegally received between 1986 and 1995. 

We welcome the remedial action in relation to ABSA as an important step in dealing with corruption in the private white owned capital. Indeed, many studies have shown that white monopoly capitalism has survived both under apartheid and the current regime through corruption. 

The ANC government, over the past 23 years, has allowed white capital to go unpunished in its role in apartheid, as well as their part in all corruption of the post-1994 government. A key example is the case of Transnet, in which local corrupt ANC officials like Malusi Gigaba worked with global white capital to loot the state in excess of R17 Billion.

The EFF questions the PP's constitutional wisdom and understanding because of her remedial action in which she instructs parliament to amend the constitution in relations to the role of the Reserve Bank. No matter how noble her proposed amendment maybe, she has no power to instruct a constitutional amendment. 

After a court ruling that the remedial actions of the PP are binding, subject to a court review, it means parliament must amend the constitution or take this instruction by the PP on court review. The public Protector is not a Public Representative, she does not have a constituency that voted for her. The constitution is a document of the people and it can only be amended by those who speak for the people   which is parliament.

The PP attains her job through a meritocratic interview conducted and ultimately appointed by public representatives. Not even judges have the power to make an instruction that the constitutions must be amended. 

The danger with her constitutional amendment recommendation is that it will be refuted by the court. This will result in a general distrust in her capacity to take decisions that can stand the test of judicial review. 

Finally, a more durable solution is a state owned bank that will redirect capital investment to the poor, underdeveloped communities, and state led industrialisation.

Issued by Mbuyiseni Quintin Ndlozi, National Spokesperson, EFF, 20 June 2017