Zondo Commission's final report offers predictable but painful verdict on the ANC and its leadership

SOUTH AFRICA - In Brief 24 Jun 2022 by Iraj Abedian

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Nearly four years of unprecedented and rare public judicial inquiry into the ANC's governance of the country came to an end this week. At long last, and after two postponements, Chief Justice Zondo submitted the final segment of his nearly 5500 pages of investigations into what is now referred to as "State Capture". Ironically, President Ramaphosa received the Report at a time that he is under immense political and social pressure due to his reported involvement in some inexplicable US dollar transactions and keeping a reported US$ 4 million cash at his well-known breeding farm called Phala. The fact that the dollars were then stolen by a group of thieves from Namibia and South Africa in 2020 and never reported to the police are additional twists in the saga. At present, Ramaphosa’s "Farmgate" case is under police investigation, and has been making headlines for the past couple of weeks. The case is unlikely to die down anytime soon. Had it not been for his Farmgate saga, Ramaphosa would have been able to claim and celebrate a fairly unique occasion. Seldom do democratic governments institute a full investigation of their maladministration, malfeasance, corruption and abuse of office whilst in power. Commonly such investigations are commissioned by the winning governing party to embarrass the losing preceding party. In South Africa, President Zuma was forced by a court order to institute the Zondo Commission back in August 2018. That was a landmark court ruling for the nascent democratic order in the country. That celebration however was not only short-lived, but followed by endless, infuriating and enraging revelations of an orchestrated systematic scheme of the looti...