South Africa could be looking at a new round of ‘state’ capture, warns Paul Pretorius, SC, who was in charge of the state’s legal team at the Zondo Commission.
He was speaking at an event at the Gordon Institute of Business Science at the University of Pretoria, held in conjunction with the UK Chamber of Commerce.
Pretorius said that the term ‘mafia’ was not inappropriately used at times in our political discourse.
He called for ‘truly independent’ law enforcement agencies to tackle organised crime and corruption. He noted that the Hawks – the country’s elite anti-corruption body housed within the police – had been promised more independence, but this has not transpired.
Pretorius said that independent crime-fighting bodies needed to be composed of well-resourced ‘specialist, highly trained investigators’, whose tenure was secure. They needed to be proactive in their work to and to pursue influential people.
He said a renewed bout of state capture would be ‘darker and more sinister’ than what the Zondo Commission had uncovered.
He also said that the Zondo Commission had publicised the extent of malfeasance to the public: ‘This time around we are not asleep. It seems that society is awake, or at least awakening to deal with the threats to our democracy.’