South Africa

South Africa

Reporter’s Parliamentary Notebook: ‘Mr Clean’ Ramaphosa battles stinging State Capture comments

Reporter’s Parliamentary Notebook: ‘Mr Clean’ Ramaphosa battles stinging State Capture comments

Spare a thought for Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, who on Thursday found himself having to come up with slick verbal contortions while juggling loyalty to state office and an ANC party-presidential campaign as Mr Clean. His question time in the House was an aching, muscle-spraining display of sending a resolute anti-corruption and anti-State Capture message in the face of prevailing lack of action by the government he is part as billions of rand due are haemorrhaging from its coffers. By MARIANNE MERTEN.

There were swathes of empty seats on the ANC parliamentary benches during Thursday’s questions to Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa in the National Assembly, although an alert-looking Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba was present. Not so the opposition benches, which fired off politically barbed questions on State Capture and government’s lacklustre track record in taking action beyond making pretty statements.

We have a president the ANC elected with 783 charges, you were silent then. The Scorpions have been captured, you were silent then… Your silence has aided and abetted the corruption in this country. This is a face-saving exercise now,” said IFP MP Mkhuleko Hlengwa. “Why should we believe you now when you have been running away? Opposition parties have raised this years ago.”

Not to mention official and public documents such as departmental annual reports, various hearings by Parliament’s public spending watchdog, the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa), financial statements by Eskom with its revolving door of executives and board members, reflecting a sharp spike in irregular expenditure to R4,043-billion in the 2016/17 financial year up from R106-million the previous year, according to the Auditor-General, the R5.2-billion in bailouts required by SAA over just three months since June as lenders called in loans in the governance troubled national airline. Never mind, #GuptaLeaks.

Ramaphosa tried to swat Hlengwa’s stinging comments away with a call of working together: “This is not the time for finger pointing. This is the time for action. I welcome your robust enthusiasm.”

It was a lacklustre feign. Earlier the deputy president had to acknowledge that corruption in state-owned entities (SOEs) was “one of the most serious challenges with regards to effecting governance in our country today”, one that constrained economic growth and development. “We are only now becoming aware of the devastating effect such corruption has had. With all the information (a reference to the #GuptaLeaks), this is becoming clearer.”

That acknowledgement came on the same day that it emerged that the Serious Fraud Office was asked to investigate UK banks’ links to Gupta companies as the Financial Times reported that the FBI would also start investigating. On Wednesday the public enterprises committee inquiry into dodgy dealings at Eskom heard how a ministerial adviser had called former Eskom CEO Brian Dames to a meeting at the Gupta company Sahara House head offices in Midrand.

When Ramaphosa publicly acknowledged the #GuptaLeaks, he did so at some political risk of blowback. In certain circles in the faction-ridden ANC, those supporting President Jacob Zuma seem particularly keen and vocal in denying or at least downplaying State Capture. Or as ANC MP Mandla Mandela put it at Wednesday’s session between the mineral resources committee and its Minister Mosebenzi Zwane: “these sensationalised matter which we seem to pick up in the public domain”. Chaired by a former Cosatu trade unionist from KwaZulu-Natal, that committee’s kid gloves approach to State Capture claims stood in stark contrast with how the public enterprises committee took to the task.

Perhaps Ramaphosa’s admission of the damaging impact of State Capture at SOEs, regardless of its belatedness, was buoyed by the ANC parliamentary caucus on Thursday rebuffing attempts to close down a parliamentary Eskom State Capture inquiry. In the blowing factional winds ahead of the ANC December national elective conference this is being touted as a decided win for those wanting to clean up.

And it is this background perhaps that informed a rather unusually frank public enterprises committee acting chairperson Zukiswa Rantho’s follow-up question: “Why did you not do anything about the corruption in the SOEs?”

Ramaphosa, who chairs Cabinet’s inter-ministerial committee on SOEs, ignored the DA MPs on their feet applauding, and twisted into equal frankness. “Yes, as news has been coming out… We have delayed and taken too long to act against those who’ve been involved in all those acts…We’ve relied on criminal agencies. In some cases there have been lapses.”

But that’s exactly the nature of State Capture: institutions are undermined as governance is hollowed out to be a box-ticking exercise, and where such dodgy dealings emerge, law enforcement and prosecuting agencies fail to act, either intentionally or because of lack of skills and resources. Hence Ramaphosa’s example of how Popo Molefe, the sacked board chairperson of the Passenger Rail Authority of South Africa (Prasa), had to go to court over the National Prosecuting Agency’s lack of action on dodgy dealings brought to it.

And so Ramaphosa’s contortions continued when EFF Chief Whip Floyd Shivambu pointedly highlighted inaction over the R500-million Eskom paid in its off-the-book dealings with Gupta-linked Trillian Capital Partners and global consultancy McKinsey.

Shivambu asked why nothing has been done at Eskom while Gigaba ordered a forensic audit of the Public Investment Corporation (PIC). According to its 2016/17 annual report, the PIC manages and invests R1.9-trillion of government employees’ pensions and savings, having scored an unqualified audit with 99,637 jobs created and investments in healthcare and renewable energy. Asked Shivambu: “Are you scared of the Guptas?”

But Ramaphosa sidestepped this, saying he’s on public record that the money should be repaid immediately. “Those responsible for this largesse should be taken book,” he said, adding that law enforcement needed to be involved immediately.

Huh? But in these twists and turns it is difficult to keep track, and contradictions slip in, like calling on law enforcement agencies to step in after having admitted to their lapses in action. Or proclaiming government’s anti-corruption stance while acknowledging the scale of State Capture.

One matter Ramaphosa was not contradicted on was his own uncaptured state. “I’m not capturing and I’m not captured. That should be clear on the record. By whoever, foreign forces, Guptas, whoever… In my own heart I’ve never been captured by anyone,” the deputy president responded to a question from EFF MP Hlengiwe Hlophe.

There is evidence – some direct, some circumstantial, according to Ramaphosa – that a certain family was involved, Ramaphosa acknowledged before going on to his mantra, also sounded on the ANC presidential campaign trail, that there should be a commission of inquiry into State Capture, and it needed to happen soonest. “That family should welcome the commission of inquiry so they have the opportunity of clearing their own names…. The president has been busy at it, working out how this commission should function.”

But of course, the reality is that nothing will happen any time soon. President Jacob Zuma has taken the public protector’s 2016 State of Capture remedial action of a commission of inquiry to court on review. The hearing starts next week. The possibility of playing kick for touch is endless here. Zuma has through various appeals stayed a trial on the 783 corruption and fraud charges that were brought around the time of the 2007 Polokwane ANC national conference that elected him party president and which charges were controversially – and incorrectly, according to the courts – dropped on the eve of the 2009 elections which saw Zuma enter the Union Buildings.

Regardless, Ramaphosa was on his feet with his usual upbeat messaging. Yes, South Africa’s standing in the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Index may have gone down, but “the wheels have not yet come off. The pillars are still in place, the foundation is there. All we need to do is to realise we are going down, hitting rock bottom. The only way is up…”

And if SOEs could just keep the Chinese Wall between the board in charge of policy, and executives in charge of day-to-day running, without meddling, then everything would be okay.

Buckling up and hard work were also the answer to stave off State Capture and corruption. DA Chief Whip John Steenhuisen could not resist: “The only buckling down you are going to get to is packing up your office!”

It was perhaps the most relaxed moment for the deputy president, telling the opposition politician he would call on his help – if and when that moment came. And then it was a fall back to the line held at earlier questions on the rumours that the deputy president would be next on the Cabinet chopping block, after supporter-turned-critic, South African Communist Party (SACP) leader Blade Nzimande, was axed in Tuesday’s reshuffle.

My removal… I cannot comment about, because I if I were removed that’s at the pleasure of the president… Clearly, he (Zuma) must have his own reasons which we are not privy to,” shrugged Ramaphosa. DM

Photo: Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa deliver a message of encouragement to delegates in his capacity as SADC Facilitator to the Kingdom of Lesotho during his working visit to Lesotho where he attended the landmark Post-Elections National Dialogue in Maseru, Kingdom of Lesotho. 18 October 2017. (GCIS)

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