Corruption is killing our economy, says Mcebisi Jonas

Speaking at a discussion event at the Sandton Convention Centre on Friday morning, former deputy finance Mcebisi Jonas blamed corruption for South Africa’s inability to transform its economy.

He said government’s inability to implement its own programmes to reform the structure of the economy was crippling it.

“The state has a critical role to play in driving the radical economic reform agenda, and I think even the IMF and World Bank have come to the same conclusions.

He slammed government for its lack of focus on policy and “insufficient technical ability within the state and the capture by narrow political business complexes”.

He referred to the public protector’s State of Capture report, the ANC’s unburdening report and the #GuptaLeaks emails.

He said these demonstrated that “part of what constrains government’s ability to effect transformation and drive growth is the high levels and deep levels of corruption and capture within the system”.

He said state-owned companies (SOCs) “should be primarily focused on driving the economy: cheap and secure electricity; cheap port handling costs. But if you drive the cost through corruption in our SOCs, what you create is the opposite.”

Jonas was fired by President Jacob Zuma in March. He had earlier revealed that the Gupta family offered him a bribe of R600 million to favour them in deals with the understanding that he would then become finance minister.

Jonas claims he refused the offer. The public protector appeared to accept his testimony.