R250bn lost to state capture in the last three years, says Gordhan

Former finance minister Pravin Gordhan has called on individuals working in institutions to become whistle blowers if they have information on state capture.

He was speaking at the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business on Tuesday.

Fin24 reports that Gordhan urged academics to investigate state capture further and uncover the full scale of corruption in the country.

He said in the last three years the country’s fiscal system lost about R250 billion due to state capture.

Allegations of state capture came out of Public Protector’s report that fingered President Jacob Zuma, his son Duduzane Zuma and the Gupta family last year.

“That money (from state capture) finds itself in various places… where you will find a bank account containing some of your tax payers’ money. South Africa does find itself at an important inflection point,” Gordhan said.

“It can succumb to the wiliness of the schemes we collectively call state capture and the fantastic ability – because you’ve got to give credit where it’s due … to produce so many Houdini’s in one country.

“You’ve got people who appear to be repeatedly trapped and seen to be transparently filling your pockets, and yet nothing happens to you. I think that is an amazing feat – to have it happening in front of millions of South Africans.

“It’s an amazing feat to see through these slights of hand and the way in which a well-connected syndicate as actually developed a system of capturing the state with the prime purpose of extracting from the state large sums of money.”

Gordhan urged South Africans to act against state capture as it could dire consequences for the country.

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