Zondo slams Jacob Zuma for allowing Guptas to capture state

Johannesburg – In his first part of the State Capture report, the acting chief justice Raymond Zondo lambasted former president Jacob Zuma for lacking accountability to allow the Guptas to capture the state during his tenure.

In the report, it is outlined that Zuma acted vigorously to hand over the ropes to the Guptas to capture the state at the expense of the people of South Africa.

The commission found that Zuma took matters into his own hands in the operational matters of entities such as the South African Revenue Service (SARS) and the power utility, Eskom.

It is further addressed that he colluded with the private sector to take charge of state entities and he was prepared to throw loyal civil servants under the bus in service of his pact with the Guptas.

Moreover, the Zondo report also took a swipe at the former President, when he stayed away from the commission of inquiry, as he failed to detail how the former board chair of South African Airways (SAA) Dudu Myeni was appointed and retained in her position.

Zuma has been implicated in the collapse of several State Owned Entities (SOEs).

The defiant Zuma only appeared once at the Zondo Commission and failed to appear to the commission after, which led to his incarceration in late July last year.

Zuma claimed that he has “not done anything wrong” despite being jailed, and further claimed that many people end up in prison not strictly for committing a crime, but for the presence of the prison-industrial complex (PIC), which gained a significant footprint during his term in office.

When Zuma set up the commission, he insisted that there was no state capture during his term in the office.

Judge Zondo insists that former SAA chairperson Dudu Myeni be charged

Zondo gives whistleblower Athol Williams a glowing tribute

Thomas Lethoba