Parliament wouldn't be able to prevent a repeat of state capture, warns Zondo

Zondo was speaking at the ‘On Record Summit’ hosted by News24 in Sandton on Thursday.

The summit drew various industry players from government, state-owned enterprises, and the media space. 

 “The one question that arises considering what happened, namely the failure of Parliament to prevent state capture is whether if, for some reason, the Guptas had to be back and they would not be in jail and be free in South Africa and started all over again, would Parliament act differently from the way they acted before?” asked Zondo.

“I doubt that they would. Because the evidence that was led before the commission by both the national chairperson of the majority party and the president of the majority party was quite clear that members of the majority party are not expected or should not vote in support a motion of no confidence in the president of the country, who is their president or president of their county. If that be so, it’s unlikely that the majority would act differently and therefore parliament would act differently.” 

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One of the recommendations made by Zondo in his fifth and final state capture report was that citizens should be allowed to directly vote for their preferred candidates to lead the country. 

But that still seems to be a long way off due to Parliament having failed to amend the country’s electoral legislation that would see independent candidates stand in the elections. 

Instead, the National Assembly has asked for an extension that is set to expire in December 2022.

This is after the Constitutional Court ruled in 2020 that the electoral legislation be amended within 24 months.