to reclaim the constitutional state has gained momentum.
This momentum has led to the recent resignation of Jacob
Zuma and the instatement of Cyril Ramaphosa, who was
elected president of the ANC in December 2017 at a highly
contested national conference and he is now the president of
South Africa. All of these developments, together with much
long awaited action finally being taken by the National
Prosecuting Authority (NPA) (in instituting charges against
several of the Gupta cohorts), have most South Africans
feeling a new sense of hope and relief. However, with much
of the country’s focus now on repairing the damage left in
the wake of the Zuma-Gupta network shenanigans, it would
be easy to resort to the ‘corruption’-based narrative of state
capture and neglect to interrogate the other less conspicuous
networks of Zuma elites and more nuanced dynamics of the
political project.
Criminal investigations and various forms of inquiries, which
seek to unearth the corrupt activities, should be applauded
and will undoubtedly go a long way to bring those who are
guilty of plundering state resources for individual gain to
book. Still, the corruption of the country’s polity cannot be
redressed through court actions or convictions of individuals
alone. The political project, which is state capture, extends
beyond just looting of the state – it is also about the
corruption of our collective values and the mutating of our
political ideals. They are ideals which cannot be read directly
from the printed letters in the pages of the Constitution, but
are discovered by reading between the lines and reside in
the spirit and principles on which this document is founded.
It is these very ideals and principles which were (and to some
extent still are) under threat.
If indeed, as argued in the Betrayal of the Promise3 report,
we are to expand our understanding of state capture from
merely the typical activities of bribery and corruption to
being a broader political project, we have to extend our
enquiry beyond just the financial flows of ill-gotten gains
and definitively criminal activities, to include the currency of
In an interview with the South African Broadcasting
Corporation (SABC), speaking on the side-lines of the
Commission on the Status of Women at the United Nations
(UN) in New York, on 19 March 2016, Bathabile Dlamini,
Minister of the Department of Social Development (DSD)
and leader of the African National Congress Women’s
League (ANCWL), cautioned ANC members against airing
the party’s dirty laundry in the media, saying:
All of us in the NEC [National Executive Committee]
have our smallanyana skeletons and we don’t want
to take out skeletons because all hell will break
loose.1
Dlamini’s comment was made in the context of her absence
from the first ANC NEC meeting held after the public media
statement made on 16 March, by then Deputy Minister of
Finance, Mcebisi Jonas, in which he took South Africa into his
confidence and confirmed that he had rejected the Gupta’s
R600 million bribe to become an agent of the shadow state
and be promoted to finance minister.2 This statement, as
short and succinct as it was, provided the nation with the
confirmation that indeed there are many dark and dubious
secrets hiding in the shadows, behind the closed doors of
power centred around Jacob Zuma.
A little less than a year ago, a collective of academics released
the report. The report provides a conceptual framework for
understanding the phenomenon of ‘state capture’, outlining
the mechanics by which state institutions are repurposed
and the shadow state formed. The subsequent release of the
Gupta Leaks e-mails and revelations contained therein have
reaffirmed the findings which were laid out in the Betrayal of
the Promise report. The role of the Guptas has been exposed
and more details of the extensive depth and breadth to which
the parasitic network extends are emerging every day. The
shock of these revelations to the nation is significant, a judicial
inquiry into the Guptas’ business dealings with the state, and
several parliamentary committee inquiries into ‘state
capture’ have been launched, which are signals that the fight
1 SABC Digital News. 2016. Dlamini Warns on Wrong Channels to Raise Issues within ANC. Video. [Online] Available: