Johannesburg - DA leader John Steenhuisen is hoping President Cyril Ramaphosa will be "honest and truthful" in his testimony "so that we can get to the heart of state capture".
Steenhuisen was addressing the media outside the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture, Corruption and Fraud in the public sector including organs of state where Ramaphosa is expected to give evidence. Ramaphosa will be wearing his president of the ANC cap during his testimony on Wednesday and Thursday this week.
Steenhuisen said Ramaphosa was in the heart of "those nine wasted years" during which state capture allegedly took place.
"He was the leader of government business, a member of the ANC NEC, Deputy President of the ANC and Jacob Zuma's right hand man.
"It is inconceivable that he sat around all these tables and didn't know what was going on with the state capture project," Steenhuisen said.
President Cyril Ramaphosa will be in the hot seat at the #StateCaptureInquiry today. DA leader @jsteenhuisen says he hopes #Ramaphosa will be honest in his testimony and shed light on his role during the state capture years. pic.twitter.com/BuzAW9Jmv8
— IOL News (@IOL) April 28, 2021
He said cadre deployment has been at the heart of enabling state capture because the ANC was able to put people in key positions based not on their ability to do the job but on their ability to serve the ANC.
"They have destroyed nearly every single one of our Public Enterprises in South Africa.
"We need to make sure that the president makes a full account about his role. We need to know what he knew, when he knew it and what he did about it," he said.
Steenhuisen maintained that Ramaphosa needed to come clean today on his role and what he intended to do going forward to prevent state capture from happening again under his watch.
He said Ramaphosa knows a lot more than he is letting on. And if Ramaphosa was not going to be honest and straightforward, it would be a "very poor" day for South Africa.
Political Bureau