The public inquiry on the alleged huge corruption during the tenure of South African former president, Jacob Zuma, has opened in Pretoria. Mr. Zuma is accused of overseeing widespread graft during his nine-year reign.
The inquiry, which could take two years to deliver its findings, is set to hear evidence of allegations that Zuma allowed ministries and government agencies to be plundered for private gain in a scandal known as “state capture”.
Much of the probe is expected to focus on Zuma’s relationship with the Gupta family, a wealthy Indian family accused of wielding undue political influence. An earlier report by a watchdog detailed allegations that Zuma ensured the Gupta family won preferential contracts with state companies, including huge mining deals, and was allowed to make great input in the choice of Cabinet ministers.
Zuma himself appointed the inquiry last January on the orders of a high court, weeks before he was forced to resign from office as criticism grew from within the ruling ANC party. His alleged involvement in multiple graft scandals damaged the party’s image ahead of elections next year but his successor, President Cyril Ramaphosa, has vowed to tackle the cankerworm head-on.
The Head of the Inquiry, Raymond Zondo, who is the country’s deputy chief justice, said the exercise would partly establish whether official appointments were “disclosed to the Gupta family or any other unauthorised person before such appointments were formally made”. The commission’s lead lawyer, Paul Pretorius, said on the opening day that the major task for the investigation is to unravel whether outsiders influenced government or state-owned enterprises for selfish gain.
