Is the ANC and ANC presidency the principal instrument for ending state capture in SA- Qou vadis Paul Mashile? – SABC News

Sandile Swana
In 2016 Public Protector Thuli Madonsela declared that there was a state of capture and the Zuma and Gupta families were central to repurposing the state and diverting funds away from the proper and constitutional functions of the state. It is almost ten years now since the authorities decided to act against the privatisation and perversion of the state for political party and personal profit. It is telling that the state capture monies that have been recovered are largely from private sector multi-national corporations. Public records reveal the following companies-
“ABB Ltd: The Swiss engineering firm signed a settlement agreement with the South African government to repay over R2.55 billion in funds related to overpayments on Eskom contracts.
McKinsey & Company: The global management consultancy repaid approximately R1.12 billion to Eskom and Transnet for work done in contracts deemed illegal, a sum that was later paid into the Criminal Asset Recovery Account.
SAP: The German software multinational settled for R1.16 billion in 2024 to resolve investigations into improper payments made to state entities.
Bain & Company: The company returned R164 million to SARS, according to earlier reports. “
From the early days of the Arms Deal it became clear that European and Western companies were here to foster corruption and loot the national purse for the long-term. The Germans even had laws that permitted their companies to bribe South African and other foreign state actors- these were called “useful expenditures (nützliche Aufwendungen) “in their tax laws.
Tony Blair and the British authorities protected their companies that were implicated in Arms Deal Corruption. The ecosystem of corruption was old going beyond Cecil John Rhodes, Paul Kruger, Koos de la Ray and Connie Mulder and many more. Local and international owners of capital were determined to continue this culture of grand corruption under the cloak of democracy and foreign investment.
Mandela was alarmed and called the Anti-Corruption Summit in 1995 and called for the Moral Regeneration Movement as well as the RDP of the Soul. It was clear to Mandela within the first year of taking power that corruption, commercial and general crime were out of control.  Mandela was clear that big business, state actors and private citizens were all involved in a culture of under-the-table favours.
The state of capture then has elements of friction and factionalism because many are excluded from the under-the-table benefits and have a grievance- Zuma and others would just be one faction. The general pattern of state capture is that after every ANC election a new or revamped faction of state actors, tenderprenuers and big businesses take their turn in looting.
The ANC has been the main entry point of looters into the state and then private business simply aligns with new state actors accordingly. That pattern has been so for more than 300 years in RSA, long before the ANC took power.
Around 2016/2017 the CR17 movement started sponsored by big business to address state capture. The EFF made its name and political capital through fighting the Zuma portion of state capture. Ramaphosa was identified as the principal candidate to address state capture from the presidency and took power early 2018 for that purpose.
That is to redirect state resources and staff back to the proper functions of the state rather than private and party profits. Eight years down the road we hear from the apex of big business, BLSA, that state capture is still alive and possibly is likely to continue after Ramaphosa. Naturally the question must be asked as to how long would it ordinarily take for a competent leadership team assisted by South African major corporations, CEOs and multi-millionaires to neutralise state capture?
Remember this thing was already in motion in 2016, but it is nowhere near complete. Writing on Moneyweb Busi Mavuso of BLSA states that progress in neutralising state capture is painfully slow, without clarifying why- “Progress on accountability is finally visible in South Africa, though the pace remains frustratingly slow. Last week’s sentencing of former ANC MP Vincent Smith to seven years’ imprisonment represents the first major state capture conviction – a breakthrough after years of waiting for justice. “
On another news publication, Mavuso says that Paul Mashatile must not succeed Ramaphosa as president because state capture continues and Mashatile is a proponent of state capture. Clearly big business sees controlling the ANC as a key part of the strategy for South Africa and that the president must continue to come from the ANC. Ramaphosa, the candidate of big business, has done a few bewildering things.
Last year July he fired Lindiwe Nkanyana as minister of higher education for lying to parliament and for trying to irregularly appoint chairpersons of SETAs including those that were clearly linked to Gwede Mantashe, the ANC and SACP. Seven months later, the ANC of Ramaphosa has now promoted Lindiwe Nkanyana to the position of deputy chief whip in parliament. This delinquent had been allocated to the parliamentary portfolio committee on agriculture before this- doing oversight of the executive, where she had failed.
Before that Zondo had been forced to swear in cabinet members who were clearly and remain implicated in state capture under the Zondo Commission. Clearly Mavuso, BLSA and the DA should have done more to correct that. Remember that the same BLSA and its associates through the good offices of Mavuso were able to issue a decisive threat on 28 May 2024 to say that if the ANC of Ramaphosa included MKP and EFF in the prospective new coalition/GNU then they would abandon Operation Vulindlela and stop collaborating with the elected government as private sector.
BLSA and Mavuso got what they demanded, so they are not powerless. Clearly Mashatile will not be president of South Africa but Mantashe, Nkanyana, Mokonyane and many more continue to wield power in the nation and in the ANC. Cleansing must be comprehensive and complete.
Mavuso takes the view that state capture will be neutralised when our private sector including multi-national corporations take over ownership of key functions of the state away from state monopolies etc. Eskom was a state-owned monopoly and working within the BEE regime when it won the world best performing utility in 2001.
A publication reported as follows “In what national electricity supplier Eskom views as an indication to the world that South Africa produces world-class businesses, the company was last week awarded the Power Company of the Year award in the Financial Times’ annual Global Energy Awards.” Eskom’s chief executive, Thulani Gcabashe, says: “The award has placed Eskom firmly in the international arena as a company of truly global stature.”
Evidently poor governance crept in as both private and public sector criminals captured state owned enterprises for political party and private benefit.  The issue was never about monopoly nor about state ownership. The collapse of the rule of law and good governance remain the central question not the nature of ownership. Our private sector companies are heavily implicated in state capture themselves and remain implicated.
Goolam Ballim, the Chief Economist of Standard Bank hits the nail on the head- “To save its economy, South Africa must focus on the rule of law and good governance, as they are the key to achieving prosperity and avoiding poverty. Fundamentally, the rule of law and good governance underpin a modern economy, with these characteristics being the main drivers of investment and economic growth. Over the past decade, the rule of law and good governance have been on the retreat in South Africa, resulting in lackluster economic growth…
A reversal of this trend is vital for the South African economy to fully turn the corner and capitalise on the momentum it picked up in 2025…Sometimes I am inclined to suggest that President Cyril Ramaphosa does not have an annual investment conference but replaces it with a governance conference. If he replaced it with a rule of law conference, it would be more meaningful in underpinning South Africa’s reach for prosperity than the investment conference in its own right… Ballim has previously told a business publication that around three-quarters of investment and economic growth in a country hinge on the rule of law and good governance. “I am making a bold statement here. I have said it before, and the data support me in saying that governance is about two-thirds to three-quarters of the economic growth of a country,” Ballim said. “
It bears repeating that according Ballim “the data support me in saying that governance is about two-thirds to three-quarters of the economic growth of a country. “The solution therefore lies in restoring good governance and the rule of law in all of RSA across the state and all facets of south African society not privatisation per se..
Specifically, any president must get all the wrong people off the bus, get the right people on the bus and make sure that every member of cabinet, department, province or municipality is the right person in the right position. The Speaker must do the same in the legislature, the Chief Justice must do the same in the Judiciary etc. Our solutions are not grounded merely in inflated claims of the private sector and their exaggerated claims of extraordinary competence. But we must hire competent, honest and diligent patriots to run a world class public sector.
These criteria and more apply to any presidential candidate. Busi Mavuso must not just quote a scandal here or another one over there about Mashatile or any other candidate, we need a systematic presentation of clear criteria and corresponding evidence that Ramaphosa is a good candidate and then why the next candidate will be a good candidate.
Ramaphosa was the Chairman of the ANC Deployment Committee that brought Brian Molefe and many rogues into the state.
Mavuso and BLSA are all silent on these issues, but we do need a systematic evaluation of all affected parties from these self-appointed kingmakers.
 

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