Ramaphosa hands over fourth state capture report to Parliament

President Cyril Ramaphosa has officially submitted part four of the Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture’s report to Parliament.

This was revealed during the National Assembly’s Programming Committee meeting on Thursday morning.

National Assembly deputy speaker Lechesa Tsenoli told MPs during the virtual meeting that Ramaphosa sent a letter informing Parliament on the matter, having already submitted part three of the State Capture Commission’s report.

“The administration including legal services is going through the report in order to identify matters that may need consideration by relevant structures of Parliament,” Tsenoli said.

Parliament prepares process

Ramaphosa’s handover comes as Parliament began establishing “appropriate systems” to process and oversee the implementation of the state capture reports.

The Joint Committee on Ethics and Members’ Interests has been tasked to investigate possible contraventions of the Code of Ethical Conduct and Disclosure of Members’ Interest for the National Assembly and members of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP).

“Parliament’s research department is currently processing the reports, summarising them into, amongst others, action plans to improve Parliament’s execution of its constitutional mandate consistent with the corrective measures contained in the reports,” Parliament spokesperson Moloto Mothapo said on Tuesday.

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Mothapo also explained that Parliament had an obligation to implement corrective measures from the commission’s reports with regard to areas where it had a role to play.

“Similarly, Parliament has a responsibility to oversee the executive’s and state agencies’ actions in their process of carrying out the implementation of commission reports.

“The Rules Committee will, at an opportune time, consider how best to process the reports and implementation plan in their entirety,” he said.

Outstanding reports

Meanwhile, Tsenoli clarified that Ramaphosa would not submit all outstanding reports, along with the implementation plan, in August as previously mentioned.

This comes after the commission, chaired by Acting Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, was granted another extension until 15 June to complete its work.

It was the eighth extension that had been granted to the commission since its establishment. The previous extension was granted earlier this year until 30 April.

The latest extension means that Ramaphosa has about four months to table a plan in Parliament on how he will deal with the commission’s recommendations upon receipt of the final report.

The president now has until October to do so.

The part three of the commission’s report dealt with the conduct of current and former MPs implicated in allegations of state capture as well as Bosasa, among others, while the fourth volume included findings on Eskom, National Treasury, the Free State asbestos project, and the R1 billion housing project.

The commission was announced in early 2018, and tasked with investigating allegations of state capture along with public sector corruption and fraud.

The inquiry began its work in August of that year and was initially given 180 days to wrap up.

The Citizen previously reported that the commission has collected 71,000 pages in submissions from more than 300 witnesses ever since the inquiry began its work.

The commission has spent more than R1 billion.

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