Civil rights and anti-corruption group Corruption Watch (CW) executive director Karam Singh said while the publication of the State capture report was welcome, leadership had to follow through on overturning corrupt processes and ensuring that all those implicated are brought to book.

Acting Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, submitted the first of a three-part report to President Cyril Ramaphosa on Tuesday, with the others to be handed over by the end of February.

The 874-page document covers the Commission panel’s investigations into allegations of wrongdoing at State-owned airline South African Airways and its affiliates, the South African Revenue Service and The New Age, a newspaper owned by the Gupta family, who were close associates of then-President Jacob Zuma and were in business with one of his sons.

CW said the report provided an opportunity for civil society and the public to call for accountability and action when Ramaphosa responded to it.

Singh said simultaneous public access to the findings and recommendations of the Zondo Commission ensured transparency in fixing weakened institutions and corruption-enabling loopholes.

This would also strengthen systems and decision-making and prevent corruption, and State capture, in the future, he noted. 

“After four years of evidence about corruption on an unprecedented scale, and a protracted wait for definitive outcomes, the South African public has the right to be part of the process that monitors the implementation of Zondo’s recommendations. Not least are the whistleblowers who put themselves at risk to expose corruption, and who deserve a better deal than they have received to date,” he stated.

He noted the recommendation in the report for greater protection of whistleblowers and the need to protect independent institutions from political interference.

While he predicted that it would be some time before any action was taken, he was pleased with the recommendation for an independent anti-corruption agency to speed up prosecutorial process.

Civil society and members of the public, he noted, could also pressure leadership to act in accordance with the report’s recommendations.

“It is time for widespread engagement around the recommendations put forward by the report, and for the active involvement and participation of civil society in pushing for major reform of systems and processes that will prevent such massive corruption in the future,” he said.