Cape Town - The Presidency has confirmed that the Zondo Commission will hand over its report into state capture allegations to President Cyril Ramaphosa on January 1 following three years of intense testimony revealed at the commission.
Minister in the Presidency Mondli Gungubele on Thursday said they hoped the report would enable the state to fight corruption wherever it reared its ugly head.
He said the report was also part of the ongoing plan in the criminal justice system to crack down on corruption.
“The commission of inquiry into allegations of state capture, corruption and fraud in the public sector, including organs of state, is scheduled to submit its final report to President Cyril Ramaphosa on Saturday, 1 January 2022.
“Cabinet anticipates that in addition to exposing the perpetrators of corruption, this report will also provide us with proposals to strengthen our systems to prevent corruption,” said Gungubele.
The commission has since 2018 been investigating state capture allegations. It was initially set up for a few months, but it asked for several extensions as it tried to get more witnesses to give evidence.
It got the last extension until the end of this year from the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria.
In another development, Gungubele told the media on Thurday the issue of further restrictions was not yet on the cards, but the government was assessing the situation.
This was because more cases were reported due to Omicron. The new variant has led to an increased number of infections.
Gungubele said the tight restrictions last year had caused huge damage to the economy as some of the businesses shut down and people lost their jobs.
“As we sit here, it’s no longer in dispute (of) the damages (that) the restrictions caused last year. Thousands of businesses stopped and a number of jobs lost and the uncertainty created by corona,” said Gungubele.
Asked on whether the government would introduce mandatory vaccines, he said there were no recommendations yet.
He said they were waiting for the task team set up by Ramaphosa before making a decision on it.
Gungubele also said the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) was fighting a number of cases before the Special Tribunal to recoup billions lost through corruption.
This was after Gungubele was grilled by the standing committee on public accounts on Wednesday evening where MPs demanded action on the SIU reports.
In the briefing, on Thursday Gungubele said there were 56 cases in the high court to the value of R62 billion.
There were a further 64 cases in the Special Tribunal worth R7bn.
Gungubele added that the SIU had also frozen pensions and bank accounts of public servants, companies and individuals implicated in corruption to the value of R43bn.
Political Bureau