South African President Cyril Ramaphosa received on Tuesday the second part of a report on state corruption during the presidency of Jacob Zuma (2009-2018), focusing on the looting of two public companies.
One of them, Transnet, the state-owned operator and owner of the country's ports, railroads and pipelines, had become the
"main site"
of state corruption, according to the 646-page report.
A special commission chaired by Judge Raymond Zondo, created in January 2018 just before the former head of state, embroiled in scandals, was forced to resign, heard more than 300 witnesses who implicated more than 1400 people or entities.
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The second part of the report, the third and last part of which must be submitted by the end of February, is
"a new significant step in the work that we must do to rid our country of corruption"
, declared Cyril Ramaphosa, in a communicated. The president will have to announce to parliament by the end of June any possible legal proceedings. The first part of the report, which looks at corruption within the airline South African Airways (SAA) and Revenue Authority (SARS), was delivered last month. The document, which also examines agreements between state institutions and a trio of businessmen of Indian origin accused of having organized with Jacob Zuma the looting of public resources, the Guptas,is over 850 pages.
The second part delivered on Tuesday inspects possible collusion within Transnet as well as in another public company, the arms manufacturer Denel.
According to the investigation, the supply contracts made by Transnet amounted to
"planned racketeering offenses carried out by a racketeering organization"
linked to the three brothers Ajay, Atul and Rajesh Gupta, friends of Jacob Zuma.
South African public companies, heavily indebted due to mismanagement under the Zuma presidency, have weighed down the accounts of the State for years, forced to regularly come to their aid.
Most of the evidence collected during the investigation leads to the Gupta brothers.
“Over the past four years, the Commission has painted a disturbing picture of the depth and damage caused by state corruption
,” acknowledged Cyril Ramaphosa.
Read alsoCyril Ramaphosa's challenge in South Africa
"We must now devote our energy to the Commission's recommendations and take the necessary steps to ensure that we never again face such an assault on public resources and the fabric of our society."
Jacob Zuma, 79, was sentenced to a prison term for stubbornly refusing to testify before Judge Zondo.
He has been on parole since September for medical reasons.
His imprisonment in July had provoked a wave of unprecedented violence in his stronghold of Kwazulu-Natal and in Johannesburg, killing more than 350 people.
