First section of Zondo report

One can say at last it appears that 3 years (or is it 4) hard work by Raymond Zondo and his legal team is coming to light.

But I have one very important question to ask. On the list of perpetrators of State Capture, WHY is  Zuma, by far the most serious and greater criminal NOT on the list of RECOMMENDED prosecutions???

Is it because even Zondo having great difficulty in the past in nailing this slippery scumbag is fearful to raise this issue again?

We seem in SA to put full effect in prosecuting the smaller criminals and selecting pawns and scapegoats...and NO I'm not inferring that those on the list are minor...they are indeed not but by comparison to Zuma...his crimes are huge. In China, he would face the lethal injection...he has brought this country so far down and continues to evade justice. 

Our whole hypocritical justice system is incredibly weak and ineffective...it indeed "strains at gnats and swallows huge camels"

Mike, look at the list in firing line:

The first volume of the report advises the NPA to “consider” – and in some places, “seriously consider” – prosecutions against about 20 individuals and firms implicated in State Capture around South African Airways (SAA), the Guptas’ The New Age newspaper sponsorship, and the South African Revenue Service (SARS). 

Here follows a summary of Judge Zondo’s recommendations thus far:

1. SAA

People or companies the NPA should consider prosecuting for fraud or corruption:

• Former SAA chair Dudu Myeni
• “The individuals” responsible for securing millions of rands “for the personal benefit of Ms Myeni and the Jacob Zuma Foundation”.
• JM Aviation directors and members of the board of SAA Technical (Saat)
• Vuyo Ndzeku, former JM Aviation director
• Yakhe Kwinana, former SAA board member
• Lindelwa Mbanjwa, Kwinana’s lawyer
• Nontsaka Memela, former Saat procurement head
• Phetolo Ramosebudi, former Acsa group treasurer
• Eric Wood, Regiments director
• Niven Pillay, Regiments executive
• Phumeza Nhantsi, former SAA CEO
• Vivien Natasen, director of Neo Solutions
• Swissport
• Daluxolo Peter, businessman
• Vuyisile Ndzeku, former JM Aviation director
• Lester Peter, SAA former head of procurement
• Officials at the North West Department of Transport
• Mr Indheran Pillay, Regiments executive
• Mr Tewedros Gebreselasie, Regiments executive
• Moss Brickman, Nedbank head of credit and international derivatives
• Mario Visnenza, Nedbank executive
• Nedbank

 Professional bodies asked to sanction members:

• The Legal Practice Council should investigate Nontsasa Memela and Lindelwa Mbanjwa with a view to potentially removing them from the legal roll.
• The South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (Saica) should investigate whether Yakhe Kwinana is “fit and proper” to practise as a chartered accountant.

Attempts to recover funds:

• Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU) to recover funds paid to and by Regiments Capital
• AFU to investigate recovering Nedbank’s profits under interest swap contracts with Regiments
• AFU to recover any other amounts “that constitute the proceeds of unlawful activities”

Other important recommendations:

• Parliament should consider extending the time limit on declaring delinquent directors. This currently stands at two years, but if extended could allow Dudu Myeni and Yakhe Kwinana to be declared delinquent even retrospectively.
• The president should ensure that the State Security Agency does not have its services abused to serve certain agendas.
• Auditor-General’s office needs more money to audit SOEs so that it can, ideally, undertake this work without involving private audit firms.

Key Quote:

“President Zuma fled the Commission because he knew there were questions that would be put to him that he would not have been able to answer.”

Read a full account of the SAA-related findings here: https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2022-01-05-state-capture-inquiry-recommendations-npa-urged-to-probe-dudu-myeni-and-other-saa-top-brass-for-criminal-activity/ 

2. SARS

People the NPA should consider prosecuting:

• Former SARS head Tom Moyane, with perjury relating to his “false evidence” to Parliament.
• Individuals involved with the awarding of contracts to Bain & Co, with corruption.

Other important recommendations:

• All Bain’s contracts with government should be re-examined.
• The SARS act should be amended to make the SARS Commissioner appointment process more transparent.

Key Quote:

“The only feasible conclusion is that [SARS] was deliberately captured and President Zuma and Mr Moyane played critical roles in the capture of SARS and dismantling it.” 

3. The New Age

People the NPA should consider prosecuting:

• Rajesh “Tony” Gupta, on the basis of evidence from former SAA CEO Vuyisile Kona that Gupta offered him a bribe initially of R100,000 and later R500,000, which Kona rejected.
• Former Transnet CEO Brian Molefe for fraud “and/or contravention of the PFMA [Public Finance Management Act]”.
• The 2015 Eskom board members should be investigated before determining potential charges against them.
• Former Eskom CEO Collin Matjila – who insisted Eskom enter into a long-term contract with The New Age –  for fraud “and/or contravention of the PFMA”.

Key Quote:

“The evidence before the Commission paints a picture of a calculated strategy by the Guptas to appropriate public funds from state-owned enterprises.” 

.

Wonder how much evidence has been destroyed or looted from the fire in CT.

Watch Judge Zondo during some of the Zuma corruption trial and was impressed with his handling of the trial and his upright honesty.

Thank heavens we still have folks with these skills and honesty in place at a few institutions in RSA.

Not enough though to get all the bad folks........

A Zondo type of Investigation should  have been done in the USA to stop looting of 

State resources by the Democrats.

Methinks the shit is about to hit the fan. It's game over.

I doubt anything will happen, and if it does, it will take years and years to prosecute

They will slow the entire judicial system down.... they will stall it and make it go at a snail's pace

They will do exactly as they have done with Zuma's case which has taken what.... 10 years now.... and even then, he got medically paroled like Shabir and Jackie Selebi, which they are still fighting...

It is a complete and utter joke

I think Ramaphosa needs to be very careful, he's trod on too many toes and now there's a bullet heading his way,.....I'd be afraid if I was him. 

Security has been beefed up for the upcoming elective conference with the SANDF called in......how do you protect yourself from the conspirators within?

DA

Not entirely a correct assessment.  The Black voters are equally opposed to corruption and they stayed away from the polls  in  the municipal elections in 2021 - only about 8 million of the registered 26 million voters in fact voted.    

That is normally an indication of where future voting will be going in future,   Disillusioned Party supporters  have a tendency to stay away from voting in elections before they switch teir support to other parties.

Strong support for action against fraudsters and corrupt politicians are likely top follow support trends  and will be dangerous to cover up.       .       

A following aricle by Rebecca Davis :

What the ANC deployment committee minutes reveal about how the party works...

By Rebecca Davis

06 Jan 2022  10

As a result of litigation from the DA, minutes from the ANC’s deployment committee meetings between 2018 and 2020 have been made public. Perhaps most worrying is the revelation that the ruling party discusses Chapter 9 appointments and judges to be selected — seemingly undermining the independence required for these crucial decisions.

The minutes of the ANC’s deployment committee meetings reveal the party’s determination to ensure that key state positions are filled by approved individuals, and that such individuals meet gender and race criteria.

The 58 pages of minutes, recording meetings held between 2018 and 2020, show the ANC’s committee deliberating over individuals to fill positions in entities ranging from the Nuclear Energy Board to the Road Accident Fund, as well as top posts in government departments.

The existence of the deployment committee, which is headed by Deputy President David Mabuza and was previously helmed by Cyril Ramaphosa when he was deputy president, is no secret.

More controversial is the DA’s claim that the minutes clearly prove the committee prioritises “party cadres rather than qualified and independent professionals”.

There is indeed some evidence from the minutes to suggest that loyalty to the ANC is considered when the committee is appraising candidates. When the committee discussed the composition of the Nuclear Energy Board on 3 December 2018, for instance, it was noted that the recommended chair and board members were all ANC members.

But that is the sole explicit mention of party membership, or ANC loyalty, within the minutes. References to candidates possessing the necessary skills, experience and CVs are far more frequent. At a meeting to discuss Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco) candidates in August 2019, moreover, the minutes specifically warn against flooding the department with “political appointments” rather than career diplomats.   

At other points, however, the committee seems most intent on ensuring diversity of gender, race, age and other identity criteria among candidates. When seeking to appoint commissioners for the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities, for instance, the committee noted that the previous nominees were drawn too heavily from evangelical churches rather than “mainstream churches or the non-Christian religions”. For another board, persons from the Eastern Cape were felt to be over-represented.   

Some candidates are endorsed or rejected for more subjective — and sometimes opaque — reasons. The previous Municipal Demarcation Board is criticised in the minutes for being “rigid” and “not as rational as it should be”. Former Sanral boss Nazir Alli has “proven to be dogmatic” and should be removed. With regards to PetroSA, there is an intriguing reference to a “cheeky HR specialist” and “disruptive” unions.

In 2019, it appeared that some Cabinet ministers were going rogue in making appointments and needed to be brought back in line.

“The committee is dependent on the cooperation and respect for process that includes the Deployment Committee by the Ministers serving in Cabinet,” the minutes sternly noted on 8 March 2019, adding that a workshop would be held after the elections with new ministers and premiers to address “the general misunderstanding of the concept of democratic centralism”.

Those words seem to have fallen on deaf ears when it comes to Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan, who in January 2020 was hauled over the coals for apparently making an unspecified appointment without consulting the deployment committee.

“The committee made it known to the Minister that he must follow the correct procedure of informing the committee before any appointments of such are made,” the minutes record.

In May of the same year, the then finance minister, Tito Mboweni, appears to have fallen foul of the committee in the same way when it came to staffing the Public Investment Corporation and the South African Special Risk Insurance Association (Sasria).

“Process had not been followed, however, the candidates recommended were diverse, skilled and experienced,” the minutes note. “The committee on those grounds allowed the two items to process.”

In June 2020, it was Ramaphosa himself in the committee’s bad books, with Ramaphosa apologising for having appointed the Presidential State-Owned Enterprises Council without the involvement of the deployment committee — but explaining “that it was an omission due to the pressure”.

At the same meeting, Dirco Minister Naledi Pandor also had to commit to working “more closely” with the deployment committee.

Although it’s not quite clear to what degree the DA is justified in accusing the ANC of selecting candidates based on party loyalty rather than skill, the opposition party is on safer ground when it comes to criticising two revelations in particular, emanating from the minutes.

The first is the fact that the deployment committee can be witnessed discussing candidates for bodies like the South African Human Rights Commission and the Commission for Gender Equality, which are Chapter 9 institutions. This means that they are supposed to be independent bodies “subject only to the Constitution and the law”, and “no person or organ of state may interfere with the functioning of these institutions”.

The second is that the ANC deployment committee on at least one occasion (22 March 2019) is recorded as deliberating over judicial appointments. In this meeting, former justice minister Michael Masutha is recorded as briefing the committee on various judicial vacancies — to be considered by the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) a few days later — and the committee then makes recommendations on its preferred candidates.

One can assume that the ANC members of the JSC proceed to advocate for these candidates accordingly when the judge selection body carries out its own deliberations.

As Judges Matter campaigners Alison Tilley and Mbekezeli Benjamin have pointed out in a Daily Maverick op-ed, this is not totally unexpected. It is likely that the JSC representatives from other political parties are similarly given instructions before the body meets.

But, write Tilley and Benjamin, “Only the ANC has been named as using a high-level political structure to do so, and then instructing members of the JSC accordingly.” They suggest that in general the JSC should be reformed to reduce the influence of political parties in appointing judges.

Tilley and Benjamin also note, however, that the ANC deployment committee’s recommendations for judges at this time actually almost all failed. They also stress that regardless of the deployment committee’s activities, the sitting president has sole discretion on who to appoint as a judge — and in at least one case Ramaphosa defied the committee’s recommendation.

“The minutes from the ANC’s deployment committee meeting are shocking in the brazen way that they discuss appointment to strategic positions in the government and other important institutions like the judiciary, Chapter 9 institutions and state-owned companies,” the two legal campaigners write.

But they caution that the DA has slightly over-egged the pudding in its expressions of outrage, given that the deployment committee did not actually succeed in placing all its preferred judges in this instance.  

In general, what the minutes suggest is the ANC’s increasingly desperate attempt to maintain a creaky centralised politburo which — other than being undemocratic — seems archaic, inefficient and ill-suited to the needs of a chaotically expanding modern country. One can imagine the frustration of Cabinet ministers and department officials needing to make speedy appointments on having to report fortnightly to this committee and sit through lengthy deliberations on every candidate for every significant public sector position in the country.

But the minutes are in one sense relatively benign, simply given the historical period they cover. As the DA has rightly pointed out, what we really need to see are the minutes for the Zuma era — during which period our current president oversaw the decisions of that committee. DM

Daily Maverick was informed on Thursday by ANC legal adviser Krish Naidoo that the minutes were incorrectly released, in circumstances that are still unclear, as the ANC continues to challenge the DA’s legal application pushing for the release of these minutes. There is, however, no reason to doubt the legitimacy of the minutes.

If I was Ramaphosa and had any concerns about my safety the last group I would call upon for protection would be the military.

These Defenders of the country don't even know their left foot from their right foot.

Watched a program on training of Paratroopers (Y tube) and was amazed to see that they are still using some of the same equipment we used in 1962/3 including aircrafts.

Their basic trainers are nowhere near what we had to endure with fellows such as:

Captain Hannes Botha.......Springbok Lock

S/Sgt Harry Finlay.........SA boxer  and Golden Glove champ (NY  1961/2)

S/Sgt Moorcroft........Judo and Karate.

S/Major Blignaut.........Fitness Guru.

Major Klomp....Medical Dr. and endurance fanatic.

plus many more proud SA permanent force members who were merciless but PROUD South African Paratroopers.

"Vasbyt Manne" was the call.

The list goes on but like everything those days are sadly gone and times have chanced.

This remind me of a Military Intelligence training camp I had to attend at Youngsfield.  We had two real bastards as Lieutenant  and Sergeant Mayor.   At the end of the three week course we asked them to come to our barrack and  they were very suspicious about the issue until we gave each of them a bottle of brandy in appreciation for what we were taught.  

Another incident involving the SA Army was when I was a lower ranking official  in the  Department of Water Affairs  in 1973.   The Department was at that time involved in Construction of the Van der Kloof Dam on the Orange River.   There was a major potential problem that would have cost hundreds of millions to repair.   The foundation laying area  was flooded and it had to be pumped  out before it would settle and damage the work already done.   I was called to the  office  of the Deputy Secretary - the second most senior official in the Department .    He told me the problem and explained that the owner of  the only company owning the required equipment  in SA - had to report for a follow-up military camp the next day.   They gave me a copy of the call-up letter and then he said "What are you going to do about it"?   

Cheeky as always I said "I will get him out" took all the documentation and then phoned the Department of  Defense and asked to speak to General Malan.   He was not available and they transferred the call to his Deputy.   It took me ten minutes to convince the Deputy by saying "I am forced to issue an instruction to the owner of the contracting company that will have consequences for your Department and for mine - I hope you agree to that?"   He did and  in less than half an  hour I went to the Deputy Secretary office and report that the the guy can leave for Van der Kloof.    His comment was "How the hell did you do it?".   

Maaik, you won't recognize Youngsfield these days...scaled down a bit and lots of the facilities are neglected. but the 2 units over there are still functional and opperate surprisingly well...can you recal what training you did there back in the day?

Good work CM.

Correction Captain Hannes Botha was a flank not a lock.

I believe he retired as one of the top brass under the ANC and has since passed on.

Man was he a strict and no BS guy but he wanted to ensure that you earned the 50 cents a day you received as pay whilst under training.

But in the end we were all grateful for the training.

Seb

In the main it had two components = physical training and intelligence training.   We had a lot of marches in sand conditions and when it came to the intelligence component I attended two courses - the one in Youngsfield dealt with issues such as map-reading  using air photos and route determination - the second one were more specific and dealt with attack routes and defense.   The problem with the maps and photo's  they gave us to use was from the 1940's and by the 1970's where there were open land was townships with shopping centers and block of flats.   That was just to complicate things for us.   

The second course was at Voortrekkerhoogte - which I passed as top student in SA - had two funny episodes.   The one was that we were told that we have a route march of 8 kilometers on a road to Delmas and were told at the end of the March we would have lunch.   The Marchh started in what was open fields in the 1940 - but was inside Lynnwood Manor in the 1970's.   What you do is normally did was to put 8 pebbles in your pocket and  count every step and after a 1 000 steps you throw away a pebble.   So when I through away the last pebble I thought the food truck must be somewhere - but nothing in site,   I thought that was weird and saw there was a thick bus near to the road and decided tp see what was behind it and their was the lorry with the food.   The officer-in-charge told me to stay quiet and not go near the road.  They ended up sending a lorry to go and fetch most of the others who walked past - some as many as 5 kilometers further on the road.   When they asked two Permanent force trainees  why they did not find the food truck and where they were going - the answer was "We were on the road to nowhere".

The other incident was when a few days later one of the soldiers complained about a cockroach he found in his food.   Suddenly their was a shout that  could have been heard in Cape Town.   The mess Sergeant Major sounded like he was exploding - and the mess staff had a punishment drill which even the fittest of them could not pass.          

https://youtu.be/O3bCtx7SNAE

Good luck Plum with your property search in Scotia.

Prices have drop around the country so perhaps you will be able to save yourself a few Bucks.

Scotia , New Brunswick, Manitoba are the lowest price areas to purchase property in Canada and demand is low thus the price is lower that the rest of the country.

Welcome to Canada and I join you in your concern for our friends and family left behind in what is a complete shambles.

Good luck...too late for me...I'll tough it out here...and enjoy it too.

It's a terrible thing forsaking your country...the hole keeps on burning...but if there's no other way?

DbD you are correct and it is indeed a very personal and a difficult situation to make and follow through on.

If you look at the situation long term and unfortunately see it unraveling far worse that you ever imagined as in our case I take comfort in the fact that my direct family and their children are safe and healthy.

In my case I had no living relatives but my wife's side of the family was still in RSA and once we had settled in we sponsored them in making the move to Canada.

My brother in law lives in JHB and is a die hard Saffer and never wished to move.

In retrospect every one of the folks who made the move still loves the country and the people but for their own reasons moved to ensure a safe and secure future for their family.

Sure we recall the good times we had in RSA at gatherings with a few cold Castle's  and "Boere" with pap.

But to a man we all agree that the move we all made was correct for the family and pray for the folks who are still in SA.

Tough as it was to move my family does not regret the move even on a cold snowy winters day but are thankful for the peace and safe way of life here in Canada,

Sure some folks have returned to RSA after many years in Canada but have not given up their citizenship just in case everything goes south in RSA.

I admire people who have stuck it out but we did not wish to risk out families health, life and security for anything.

Always thankful for the life we had in Africa and for the opportunity we have in Canada.

Trust all works out well for all the folks who have remained behind and that peace will eventually come to Africa as well.

AJH

I read terrible things about the Canadian politics and the conduct of the Government with the press leftist press even worse than in the USA.    I think the conditions are near to terrible and the country seems heading for a dictatorship by the extreme left.   

I have moved from KwaZulu-Natal to the Southern Cape where some sanity in Government still prevail and more and more people are moving from the rest of the country into this part of SA.  Too old to leave SA  and do not see much longer than 3 years to be on earth - will be 80 in June.           

Maaik, what day in J une?

Appears that June was a good month for many.

29th is mine.

But a year later after you.

The Liberals party in Canada are taking heat for the "Indian Dancer" T and his corruption plus handling of the "Pandemic" and his trucker remarks.

A prick at birth and he has never changed.

With the Indian population soaring in Canada and more arriving each and every day just a matter of time before Punjabi becomes the third official language and our PM will be wearing the Orange headgear.

Time to start learning the language I guess.