South Africa: The Zondo Commission Was Fabulous, but It Failed in One Crucial Respect

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President Cyril Ramaphosa formally received the fifth and final Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture, Corruption, and Fraud in the Public Sector including Organs of State, during a handover ceremony held at the Union Buildings in Pretoria on June 22, 2022.The report was presented to the President by the Chief Justice and Commission Chairperson, Judge Raymond Zondo.
23 June 2022
Daily Maverick (Johannesburg)
opinion By Tim Cohen

Now that the final report is in, what do we all think about the Zondo Commission? I think we are in a bit of a blur: sad, angry, doubtful about the future, thankful for the commission, thankful it's over, angry it didn't go further, and irritated that so few arrests have taken place. It's a whole mishmash.

Despite the incredible job the Zondo Commission did, some of my colleagues feel the commission lacked one crucial aspect: it failed to provide an overarching analysis of why the corruption happened. And consequently, the commission's recommendations are kinda haphazard, from suggesting a permanent commission of some sort, to suggesting a directly elected President.

Perhaps the real problem is that at least some of the suggestions might overlap with political programmes that are the domain of the political system. Or maybe, after spending more than R1-billion and four years on the job, they were keen to finish up and head out to the bar.

Because I like to blunder in where angels fear to tread, allow me to try, in an off-the-cuff way, to suggest some aspects that an overarching analysis might contain.

There were so many different parts of this investigation and so...

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