Commission’s mandate admission that state machine is failing

The civil rights organisation AfriForum is of the opinion that Pres. Jacob Zuma’s statement regarding the appointment of a commission of enquiry into state capture is admission by the president that the state machine is failing. It is AfriForum’s view that this is the reason why Zuma is making the mandate so wide and that such a wide mandate is not what Thuli Madonsela intended.

This follows after the president issued a statement on Tuesday evening in which he announced that Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng appointed Raymond Mogoeng, Deputy Chief Justice, to lead this commission. According to the statement Zuma says that “the commission must seek to uncover not just the conduct of some, but all of those who may have rendered our state or parts thereof vulnerable to control by forces other than the public for which government is elected. There should be no area of corruption and culprit that should not be spared the extent of this commission of inquiry.”

Monique Taute, Head of AfriForum’s Anti-Corruption Unit, says if the Hawks and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) did their jobs, it would not have been necessary for the commission to make its mandate so wide. “Now it boils down to one justice having to look at all corruption in the country. For some time now AfriForum has been aware that there are people who are indemnified from prosecution. For this exact reason the organisation has put structures in place to hold people accountable,” says Taute.