Batting for the party: ANC not ‘complicit’ in state capture, says Ramaphosa

President Cyril Ramaphosa says he does not believe the leadership of the ANC can be accused of being complicit in acts of corruption and state capture during former president Jacob Zuma’s time in office.

Ramaphosa told the Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture that there were several “signposts” of wrongdoing or misconduct when he served as Zuma’s deputy.

But he said he was not fully aware of the extent of large-scale corruption and looting that was happening.

“Could we be said to have been negligent? It could well be but complicit we were not,” the president said on Thursday.

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Ramaphosa was responding to a question from the commission’s evidence leader, advocate Paul Pretorius, who quizzed him about allegations of state capture involving Zuma, the Guptas and their associates.

“Given the overwhelming evidence before the chair, it’s really difficult to accept people didn’t know what was going on. They may have been strategic in certain instances, but they knew,” Pretorius said.

Ramaphosa said the ANC could have done better by being more alert to what was happening in government.

“We saw these signposts of certain anomaly actions, which did not really link up to what was reasonable. But the full thread and the network of what was happening in Transnet and Eskom was not apparent.

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“That is why in my statement I said those who were involved in the state capture project so hid their machinations… and one could not immediately join the dots because the dots quite often were disjointed and you need to have a thread, pick it up and join all of them.”

Ramaphosa said some of the signs that indicated to him there was wrongdoing in government was Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula’s comments in 2011 that the Guptas knew about his appointment as sports minister before it was announced.

He also mentioned the controversial landing of the Guptas’ wedding aircraft in 2013 at Waterkloof Air Force Base in Pretoria.

“The changes that we are seeing now are happening because some people decided to stay in [government] and make strategic choices and embark on strategic actions along the way as they felt they could,” he said.

Regarding criticism by some South Africans that those who fought from within could have done more to stem the tide of state capture, Ramaphosa said: “It’s a decision or judgment they [South Africans] have to make”.

“But being in the ring is what some of us preferred to do and when you’re in the ring [you’re] involved in a real battle. And sometimes some of the battles one got involved in are those that are not known.”

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