ANC chooses defence of Zuma over state capture probe

21 June 2017

Today the ANC once again made it clear that they are unmoved in their defence of President Jacob Zuma and that, through their majority in Parliament, they will frustrate our efforts to establish an Ad Hoc Committee on State Capture.

We have been left with no doubt that the ANC is committed to defending President Zuma, the Guptas, and their project of state capture.

This follows the cynical ploy by the House Chairperson of Committees, Cedric Frolick, of relegating Parliament’s efforts to investigate state capture to the portfolio committees of Home Affairs, Mineral Resources, Public Enterprises and Transport, only. The ANC has wantonly chosen to ignore the fact that state capture is a broad spectrum attack on our very sovereignty and our democracy, not an anomaly in four departments.

In explaining their objection to the establishment of an ad hoc committee to enquire “into [the] undue influence by certain individuals over the executive in their exercise of executive authority”, the ANC pontificated about the effective role portfolio committees could play in investigating state capture.

Curiously, they could not explain why this hasn’t happened yet, despite the tabling of the Public Protector’s damning State of Capture report in 2016 and, more recently, the allegations contained in the #GuptaLeaks.

The ANC could also not explain why so few portfolio committees have been tasked with probing these wide-ranging allegations, especially as former and current ministers of Finance, Communications, Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, and others have all been implicated.

What is clear, however, is that any kind of Parliamentary probe into allegations of state capture is now delayed by the ANC until after recess, which will only end in August 2017. The ANC is simply dragging its feet to avoid the truth coming out.

More worryingly, the President has been given another reprieve by the ANC in Parliament which knows perfectly well that there exists no portfolio committee dealing with the President, specifically, and wilfully ignores the fact that the Zuma and Gupta families are the fulcrum of the state capture project.

We would like to express our gratitude to our fellow opposition parties who recognised the need for an ad hoc committee on state capture and supported our proposal.

The DA is undeterred and will move our draft resolution on the establishment of an Ad Hoc Committee on State Capture at the very next opportunity in the House. We hope that Members from the ANC can find the courage of conviction to support our motion and begin the work of ridding South Africa of state capture and those who believe our beautiful land is up for sale.

Issued by Mike Waters, Deputy Chief Whip of the Democratic Alliance, 21 June 2017