Members of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) have welcomed President Cyril Ramaphosa’s reforms that seek to address the gaps in the country’s system of governance.
In a document dubbed “State Capture Report”, President Ramaphosa submitted to Parliament on October 23 for review, the South African head of State outlined the steps that his government is taking to bring to book perpetrators of the illegal control of the nation for their own advantage as well as the reform that will be undertaken to prevent future occurrence of state capture.
The 76-page document is a response to the recommendations of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into allegations of State capture, corruption and fraud in the public sector, including State organs.
In a statement shared with ACI Africa Thursday, November 3, SACBC members say, “We welcome the broad reforms that the president has proposed to remedy the gaps in the country’s system of governance.”
They express their agreement with “the appointment process for the heads of law enforcement agencies and the boards of state-owned enterprises and the procurement reforms as stated in the document that is currently under parliamentary assessment.”
Other reforms in the document that the Catholic Bishops in Botswana, Eswatini, and South Africa agree include the protection of whistleblowers and the reviewing of the Political Party Funding Act, which aims at “criminalizing donations made with the expectation of procurement benefits.”
SACBC members underscore the need to end the entrenched cadre deployment policy that threatens individuals, companies and agencies.
“We would therefore like to see a more decisive commitment from the ruling party to ending cadre deployment,” they say in their two-page statement signed by SACBC President, Bishop Sithembele Sipuka.
SACBC members acknowledge the proposed measures aimed at strengthening South Africa’s justice system to ensure the successful investigation and prosecution of those implicated in State capture and other forms of corruption.
They say the decision to establish a specialized court roll for State capture cases and to place the Investigative Directorate (ID) as a permanent fixture in the National Prosecuting Authority “is welcomed”.
The Catholic Church leaders however express concern that the permanent placement of the ID in the National Prosecuting Authority is likely to be compromised by the executive through Parliament.
They join civil societies in demanding that “the government establish an anti-corruption body as a new chapter 9 institution, with a mandate to investigate and prosecute serious corruption cases, which cannot be closed down by a simple majority of parliament.”
SACBC members also call on lawmakers to account for their failure in “holding the executive to account” and allowing themselves to be used by the ruling party.
They say, “We expect that the parliament itself will publish its own implementation plan of the report detailing how it will address the Commission’s complaint that the Parliament has consistently failed in its responsibility to hold the executive to account, with the ruling party often using its numbers in the Houses of Parliament to frustrate any attempts at holding the executive to account.”
The Catholic Bishops also say they find it regrettable that some of the members of the national executive and cabinet ministers who are implicated in the State capture report are still serving in government and the President has done nothing about it.
“We are disappointed that the President has not been decisive on this matter and are concerned that once more, political expediency, particularly in relation to the upcoming ANC’s elective conference, seems to prevail over the good of the nation,” SACBC members say.
They call on the Head of State to “announce as soon as possible how he will hold to account the cabinet ministers implicated in the Commission’s report.”
The State capture document also touches on the Zondo Report, which implicated South Africa’s former president, Jacob Zuma, and other State officials in improper relationships with the Gupta family, among other improprieties.
SACBC members say that the implementation of the Zondo Report will lack credibility if the prosecution will only target middle level government officials while “senior-level politicians implicated in the state capture report and other allegations of corruption get off scot-free.”
“We need assurance from the president that senior-level politicians and cabinet ministers will not be shielded from accountability,” say the Catholic Church leaders from South Africa, Eswatini and Botswana.
They add that the credibility of the Zondo Report will be questionable if the President fails to prove to the country his integrity concerning the “alleged crimes of financial misconduct and defeating the ends of justice from his Phala Phala farm.”“We, therefore, call on the president and all relevant institutions to conclude the investigations and reports on the allegations of the president breaking the law as soon as possible,” SACBC members say in their statement shared with ACI Africa November 3.
They also condemn greed and the spirit of indifference displayed by the business and political elite in South Africa.
The level of greed in South Africa “has generated high levels of public sector and private sector corruption, diverting resources that the country needs to recover from its legacies of economic inequalities and poverty,” the Catholic Church leaders say.
“Our wish and prayer are that our people work together to adopt a new vision of politics and economy guided by the common good and the concerns of the most vulnerable in society, not the narrow interests of the business and political elite,” SACBC members say in their statement.