Ramaphosa won’t respond to anything in final state capture report just yet

The Presidency says President Cyril Ramaphosa will not respond to any specific aspects in the final report of the State Capture Commissions findings and recommendations at this stage.

The Presidency says it has noted several media enquiries about observations by Chief Justice Raymond Zondo in relation to President Cyril Ramaphosa in the final part of the report.

Most concerning among these is that as Chairperson of the Commission, Zondo made certain observations on decisions made and actions taken by Ramaphosa while Deputy President of the country.

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Ramaphosa appeared before the Commission on 11 and 12 August 2021 to give evidence in his capacity as President of the Republic.

Presidential spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said Ramaphosa had given evidence in April 2021 in his role as President of the African National Congress (ANC).

“As part of his evidence and in his written submission, the President outlined in detail the options he had considered as Deputy President in response to emerging evidence of state capture, and the efforts he has led as President to stop the abuse of public resources and rebuild key institutions.”

“The President has committed to consider the Commission’s report in its totality and to present a comprehensive response and implementation plan to Parliament. The Presidency will therefore not respond at this stage to specific aspects of the Commission’s findings and recommendations,” Magwenya said.

The final state capture report has exposed a series of glaring gaps in Ramaphosa’s testimony on the widespread looting of state resources.

It showed that Ramaphosa lied when quizzed on the work of the high-level review panel on the State Security Agency (SSA).

The findings by Zondo also states the president had nothing to lose if he had spoken out earlier- in a non-confrontational matter- against the ongoing and obscene criminal activities within the ANC.

“President Ramaphosa did not state outright who would have removed him from his position had he opted to be ‘more confrontational’, but only one person had the power to dismiss him: former president Jacob Zuma,” said Zondo.

Zondo also found that Ramaphosa’s testimony had been “somewhat circumspect” and added this may mean that the president believed that Zuma was complicit in the State Capture project and would abuse his power to further it.

ALSO READ: State capture: Ramaphosa’s silence made him complicit, Zondo finds