ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe said the proposal was made by President Jacob Zuma when he delivered the political report to the party’s national executive committee (NEC).

“The terms of reference of such a commission of inquiry must be broad enough to uncover the influence of business on the state,” Mantashe said.

The party said it also wanted a review of the Public Protector’s findings.
Zuma had approached the court, challenging former Public Protector Thuli Madonsela’s recommendation that the chief justice appoint a judge to oversee the commission.

Business influence

Zuma said on Friday that he was not opposed to the commission, but that his legal team had advised him that the Public Protector had no legal or constitutional right to tell him what to do.

“The NEC expressed its desire to see all processes of reviewing the Public Protector’s State of Capture report accelerated so that they are not an obstacle to the speedy establishment of the judicial commission into state capture,” Mantashe said.

He said the commission would go beyond the findings of the Public Protector, and investigate the extent of business influence on the state from 1994.

“We are not interested in justifying the Public Protector report, but to understand the depth and involvement of business in influencing government. It will be deeper than what is in Public Protector report on state capture, so the commission will go beyond the Public Protector report,” Mantashe said.

Madonsela had investigated the influence of Zuma’s friends, the politically connected Gupta family, on the executive and state-owned enterprises.

Her report implicated several Cabinet ministers, and the reinstated Eskom boss, Brian Molefe.

The call for a judicial commission of inquiry was first made publicly by Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa. DM

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