Ramaphosa calls Mcebisi Jonas’ state capture book an ‘important guide’

Former deputy finance minister Mcebisi Jonas has penned a book about state capture after he launched to fame for claiming the Guptas had offered him a R600 million bribe.

He testified about the incident last year at the state capture commission.

Some speculated last year that President Cyril Ramaphosa would offer the vacant job of finance minister to Jonas after the resignation of Nhlanhla Nene, but Jonas made it clear he was not interested. He was in May announced as the chairperson designate of MTN, a role he will fully step into when the current chairperson, Phuthuma Nhleko, steps down in December.

As his publisher, Picador Africa (Pan Macmillan) says in its press statement, his book, After Dawn: Hope After State Capture, builds on Jonas’ sensational story that, in October 2015, the Gupta brothers allegedly offered Jonas the position of minister of finance in exchange for R600 million.

“Then deputy minister of finance, Jonas turned down the bribe and a period of deep introspection followed for him. How did we reach this point, and what did the future hold for South Africa’s democracy and the economy?

After Dawn by Mcebisi Jonas

“In After Dawn, Mcebisi Jonas analyses the crisis at the heart of our current system, which places politics at the centre of policymaking and implementation at the expense of growth.

“In this important and authoritative book, Jonas first unpacks and analyses the current badlands of the South African economic and political landscape.

“In the second half, Jonas proposes a series of workable and practical solutions for transitioning South Africa into a growing, job-creating country.”

They summarised some of his key focus points as “putting inclusive growth at the centre of economic policy; rapidly expanding new technological capacities and knowledge to transition to a twenty-first-century economy; expanding human capabilities at scale; path-changing trade-offs to catalyse the next phase of South Africa’s development; nurturing a corruption-free, high-performance state built on meritocracy and innovation; and changing the nature of politics”.

“Time is of the essence and the window of opportunity is narrowing for all South Africans to work together towards the South Africa we all imagined was possible in 1994.”

In a quote published on the book cover, After Dawn receives a resounding endorsement from President Cyril Ramaphosa, who describes it as an “important book … a guide to dialogue and engage with each other as we make the difficult trade-offs required to reach our dream”.

The 296-page book will launch in August and cost about R290.