Special Report - April 2024 - Commissions, Corruption and State Capture: Charting the Way

The process involved the undermining of oversight mechanisms, and the manipulation of the public narrative in favour of those who sought to capture the state. [...] Having worked in the ANC intelligence branches in the mid-80s, Zuma was appointed chief of the ANC’s Intelligence Department in 1986.57 At the time of Zuma’s ascension to the presidency of the Republic of South Africa (via the presidency of the ANC) in 2009, the architecture of the South African civilian intelligence service had a more traditional decentralised structure, as seen in other jurisdic. [...] This was changed in 2011 through the creation of the Board Acquisitions and Disposals Committee (BADC) as a sub-committee of the board.96 The BADC was empowered to approve approaches to the open market and to conclude contracts for HVTs exceeding ZAR 500 million ($27 million).97 The creation of the BADC in February 2011 was noted to have coincided with the appointment of Molefe as CEO on 16 Februa. [...] Eskom has a monopoly over the provision of electricity and other energy-related services such as generation, transmission, distribution and retail sales in the country.98 The minister of public enterprises has the sole authority to appoint Eskom directors.99 The SCC found that this authority was abused to facilitate the capture of Eskom for the benefit of the Guptas and their associates. [...] This paved the way for Singh and Molefe to be redeployed from Transnet to Eskom at the behest of the Guptas, facilitated by Zuma, as CFO and CEO of Eskom respectively.101 In the SCC’s findings, Brown’s reconstitution of the Eskom board in 2014 removed any potential obstacles for the Guptas to access lucrative contracts at the entity.102 The appointment of Matshela Koko as acting CEO from November.