Ramaphosa 'not shying away from state capture issue' in Davos

President Cyril Ramaphosa ,Minister of Finance Tito Mboweni and Governor of the South African Reserve Bank Lesetja Kganyago in Davos. Picture: Jairus Mmutle/GCIS

President Cyril Ramaphosa ,Minister of Finance Tito Mboweni and Governor of the South African Reserve Bank Lesetja Kganyago in Davos. Picture: Jairus Mmutle/GCIS

Published Jan 23, 2019

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Davos-Klosters - President Cyril Ramaphosa is upfront about the scourge of state capture, much of which is being laid bare daily before the Zondo Commission of Inquiry.

This is according to presidential spokesperson Khusela Diko who was responding to a question on whether foreign heads of state and international investors asked about state capture and corruption and the effect it has had on the country.

"Indeed they do, but even before international audiences ask, it is an issue that the president always brings up," Diko said in Davos, Switzerland, where Ramaphosa is leading Team SA on a major drive to attract investment at the annual World Economic Forum summit.

"We are dealing with the challenges that we faced on state capture. South Africans will know that right now the commission on state capture is undertaking its work, there are a number of engagements that are being made in there, obviously people will have to cross-examine and get their stories, but it is doing exactly what we intended it to do and that is to ensure that we bring these issues out in the public domain, to be properly ventilated, so that we are able to get to the bottom of what really transpired over the last nine years."

She added: "So we have been speaking about that, but we have also been speaking about how, within state institutions itself, we are rooting out these issues and the successes are there for many of us to see."

Diko said that the president was of the view that the Zondo Commission was "set up for a purpose and it is fulfilling that purpose, that is to get to the bottom of it".

She added that Ramaphosa did not want the commission and its outcomes to be used for political point-scoring, "but really it is to seek to rid and cleanse the country of what had transpired". 

"He has asked that commission be given space to continue its work unhindered, and at the end of it there will be recommendations that will come out."

Diko urged people who have information to come forward and share it via the commission.

South Africans have been engrossed by the revelations of alleged corruption and state capture which have been made by former Bosasa chief operating officer Angelo Agrizzi before the Zondo Commission in recent days.

African News Agency/ANA

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