Ahmed Kathrada Foundation blasts SA organisations for endorsing state capture fightback

Following a joint press briefing held by The Ahmed Kathrada Foundation and the South African Communist Party (SACP) to update the media on confronting what they call the “State Capture fightback,” comes a long list of local organizations that the bodies deem to be proponents of the fightback against the reality of State Capture.

Entries on this list include the likes of Corruption Watch, Business Leadership South Africa and the Helen Suzman Foundation among others.

“Today, we face a concerted fightback against the renewal of our society by many of those implicated in state capture. Theirs is an attempt to subvert the processes underway to rebuild efficient and ethical governance, so that they may remain accountable,” read part of a statement read by the SACP’s Alex Mashilo.

“Chapter 9 institutions are not immune from being drawn into agendas through what comes across as being politically motivated ‘complaints,'” added the organisations.

These agendas are reportedly driven by, what the Kathrada Foundation and SACP call, “state capture networks.”

During Mashilo’s address, he declared that members from his organisation will hold a public rally on 21 July at the Johannesburg City Hall in an effort to mobilize citizens to join their fightback campaign in the protection of democracy.

“At the rally, we will make it clear that we refuse to allow ministers, public officials, whistleblowers, activists and journalists who speak out against #StateCapture to be targeted,” said Mashilo.

“We will also challenge the peddling of fake, and often highly racialised narratives that aim to characterise those who fight State Capture as being counter-revolutionaries, anti back and anti-radical economic transformation,” added Mashilo.

According to Mashilo, these falsehoods divert attention from the looting, malfeasance and decay of accountable governance.

He claims that there have been attempts over the last few days to convince the public that State Capture is a figment of the imagination.

As part of their statement, the organisations shared a list of organisations that they believe have endorsed the aforementioned narrative.

Ahmed Kathrada Foundation state capture denialist list | Image: Twitter

Mashilo also commented on the recent developments surrounding the much-talked-about SARS rogue unit, adding that both organisations find it “extremely concerning” that the discredited SARS ‘rogue unit’ narrative is being perpetuated yet again.

“The public protector seems to be overly preoccupied with the old ‘rogue unit’ narrative that has already been widely debunked,” he said.

They believe that the public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s work on this and related cases also takes her attention away from state capture related matters.

The organisations concluded by listing the effects of state capture and corruption thus far, the successes in addressing these issues and their plan for fighting against state capture going forward.

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