DAVOS-KLOSTERS - Government will not allow anyone to collapse the commission of inquiry into state capture, President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Wednesday.
Addressing a media briefing at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Ramaphosa said revelations at the commission, which has implicated several Cabinet ministers, top politicians and senior state officials, had been a "cathartic" moment for South Africa.
"That commission is very important in the life of South Africa because it is executing a very important and historical task of getting South Africa to the bottom of what really happened with state capture," he said.
"It may well be a cathartic moment for South Africa but it is also a moment of truth and we also want it to be a moment of redemption...so that we put right what went wrong in the past and never, never, never again have the spate of corruption that has been revealed to the Zondo commission."
Ramaphosa said any attempts to collapse the commission would not be tolerated by government or the judiciary.
"What is pleasing is that we've got not only an independent judiciary, but what I call a headstrong judiciary, a judiciary that will not cow down to be intimidated, a judiciary that has a fierce commitment to the rule of law which will not allow any task to collapse in their hands."
The commission has heard testimony about the extent of the influence the controversial Gupta family wielded over government, making billions of rands off state contracts awarded to them through corrupt dealings with government politicians and officials.
Over the past week, the commission has heard damning testimony from a former chief operating officer of Bosasa (now trading as African Global Operations) on how the company milked the State through forging corrupt relationships with politicians and government officials.
Ramaphosa said the commission should be allowed to continue hearing evidence unhindereed.
"The commission has heard evidence of corruption on a scale far greater than many people had expected,"he said. "As difficult and damaging as some of the testimony may be, this is an absolutely essential process that must be seen through to its conclusion if we are to put this shameful episode in our history behind us," said Ramaphosa.