Never again must SA dodge a Zuma bullet

It is extraordinary how some people – mainly those who support former president Jacob Zuma – are still convinced that state capture is a lie aimed at neutralising him politically … and that the Zondo commission’s reports are nothing more than a pack of lies.

If Chief Justice Raymond Zondo is a liar – and the coordinator of a vast conspiracy by like-minded liars who gave evidence at the commission – then he must be extraordinarily creative and have unlimited stamina.

There are more than 5 000 pages in the combined six reports and on almost every page there is chilling evidence of the huge network behind the capture of the state and the looting of our resources. While the saga of state capture has focused on Zuma, the Gupta family has also been on centre stage, leading to a narrative that Zuma was a greedy, easily manipulated man who handed over his country to arrogant foreigners.

But that simplistic account of what happened to this country when Zuma took office as head of state in 2009 ignores the broader – and even more worrying – reality of what Zuma was really up to.

The latest Zondo report leaves little doubt: Zuma established his own security apparatus, hijacking the State Security Agency (SSA), police Crime Intelligence and various arms of the justice sector, including the Hawks and the National Prosecuting Authority, as well as the SA Revenue Service, to put layers of protection around himself.

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This was not about Zuma making it easier for the Guptas to loot; it was about setting up a shadowy, nonaccountable intelligence and security structure to root out people opposed to him, to ensure that, not only would he continue to run the ANC, but that he – or his dynasty – would be “President for Life”.

One only has to look at his relationship with Arthur Fraser, former head of the SSA – set out in the latest report – to understand how things worked.

Fraser was accused of stealing money from secret intelligence funds but when some of the ANC’s old guard intelligence people wanted to investigate and prosecute him, Zuma stopped it. In return, apart from monitoring threats against Zuma within the ANC, Fraser – in his role as head of correctional services– was able to release the president from prison on medical parole.

Is it any wonder that Fraser initiated charges against President Cyril Ramaphosa in the wake of a burglary at the president’s game farm in 2020?

Is it any wonder, also, that our state security apparatus has been so busy protecting Zuma that it failed to give advance warning of the insurrection in KwaZulu-Natal in July last year – and indeed, that its Zuma-loyal operatives may not only have been aware of it, but may also have played a part?

What happened at the ANC’s Nasrec elective conference in 2017 was that, despite the weight of secret resources backing him, Zuma was stopped dead in his tracks.

Now, as we can see from the Zondo report, Zuma wanted to continue to rule this country so he and his dynasty – possibly with his son, Duduzane, inheriting the mantle of power– could continue to loot unchecked.

In that, he would have been just another African kleptocratic looter, like Mobutu Sese Seko was in the then Zaire. South Africa dodged a bullet with Zuma. As Ramaphosa said when receiving the final report, this must never be allowed to happen again.