Cyril Ramaphosa hints at more State Capture arrests

President Cyril Ramaphosa says there will be more State Capture arrests to add to the existing 33 cases, which has led to the recovery of billions of Rands and cancelled contracts.

He said while the State paid more than a billion Rand for the Zondo Commission, the government has cancelled contracts worth R86bn, and assets worth R64bn have been forfeited to the State.

‘R86 BILLION STATE CAPTURE CONTRACTS CANCELLED’

“Where contracts that were not supposed to be entered into have been cancelled and I can count that it amounted to something like R86bn at some stage, which is a substantial amount of money,” said Ramaphosa.

He was answering questions from members of Parliament on Tuesday on a range of issues when he was asked about state capture investigations, according to the Independent Online.

Ramaphosa said more arrests would be made while investigations continue. He said our law enforcement agencies were busy with several of those cases.

“This is what the people of South Africa ought to know. The commission cost over R1bn, but the recoveries have been way above what we paid in getting the commission underway, and there are still going to be more recoveries, more arrests, and investigations underway,” he said.

PUBLIC WANTS TO SEE BIG NAMES – SAYS CYRIL RAMAPHOSA

The President said South Africans wanted to see big names being held accountable for looting out the State based on the commission’s findings, which presented its findings to Ramaphosa two years ago.

On Tuesday, the Investigating Directorate (ID) raided the Johannesburg home of Parliament Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula. The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) confirmed in a short statement that the search and seizure operation was part of an investigation.

HAWKS MADE 33 STATE CAPTURE ARRESTS BY NOVEMBER 2023

Daily Maverick reported that Democratic Alliance’s (DA) leader, John Steenhuisen, asked if Ramaphosa would support the Speaker in stepping aside. Steenhuisen also asked him about the uncompleted executive lifestyle audits.

“Your failure is what has facilitated this alleged corruption by the Speaker. You are the reason we are sitting with a corruption-alleged deputy president, the Speaker’s house raided, and a Cabinet that reads like a Zondo most wanted list,” he said.

As of November last year, the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks) made State Capture 33 arrests after putting together a task team of 20 experienced investigators to prioritise the investigations.

During a Parliamentary briefing session in November, the Hawks confirmed that there were 47 matters arising from state capture, with five court cases, two pending the NPA’s decision, 10 cases under investigation, 30 inquiries under investigation and two finalised cases.