The Civil Society Working Group on State Capture was established in November 2018 and is a coalition of more than twenty civil society organisations united in their stance against the looting of public funds and committed to promoting the interests of the public. Efforts to tackle state capture and corruption are ongoing and require long term, targeted civil society engagement.
Open Secrets acts as the secretariat of the CSWG.
The collective civil society response is a reflection, by civil society organisations within the Civil Society Working Group on State Capture (CSWG), on the Zondo Commission and the State Capture report. It has been compiled from several civil society organisations’ perspectives and stands as a part of ongoing collective work by the CSWG and broader civil society, alongside the important work being done by whistle-blowers and journalists in the country in efforts to hold perpetrators of state capture to account.
This Agenda for Action is based on detailed submissions made to the Zondo Commission by organisations of the Working Group covering the widespread impact of state capture on lives of people in South Africa. The Agenda for Action summarises recommendations that can hopefully serve as a roadmap during the next years of critical areas of reform within the South African state and private sectors. This submission was prepared at a time when these and other civil society organisations were deeply concerned about the impact of state capture on the lives of millions of people. The human cost of state capture and its contribution to deepening poverty and inequality provides the necessary urgency for the reforms set out in this submission.
by Dominic Brown and Erwan Malary
The submission draws from the Nugent Commission of Inquiry, evaluates the consequences and causes of the capture of tax institutions not merely as a matter of bad individuals but as matter of weak institutions.
by the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) and Corruption Watch
This joint submission is concerned with the manipulation of criminal justice agencies by the Executive under the administration of former president Jacob Zuma. This manipulation was a critical factor in entrenching state capture.
The bankers, accountants, lawyers and consultants that cashed in on state capture.
This submission was presented to the Zondo Commission on the 4th of February 2020.
by Shadow World Investigations
This is the first of two submissions to the Zondo Commission by Shadow World Investigations
This joint submission focuses specifically on issues related to the misappropriation and
misuse of public funds which should have been geared towards the provision of basic
education.
OUTA’s State Capture Portfolio addresses the performance of Government, its respective departments and its state owned entities in the delivery of service to society.
OUTA's submissions are on Home Affairs, Eskom and Denel
by the Africa Criminal Justice Reform and the Dullah Omar Institute
by the Dullah Omar Institute
The DOI submission argues SOE Boards represent both a critical layer of accountability and oversight over the entities’ administration and the all-important link between the state and the SOEs.
This submission argues that major energy procurement projects need independent oversight at all stages – pre-procurement, procurement and post-procurement – to prevent further state capture.
This submission aims to illustrate that corruption has a direct impact on people’s constitutional rights to access health care services.
This submission aims to illustrate that corruption has a direct impact on people’s constitutional rights to access health care services.
The People’s Hearing on State Capture, held on the 12th of October 2019 at Constitution Hill, was a public forum where members of the public, community leaders and activists were invited to reflect on the impact of state capture, either in person or through videos. Alongside this, documentary shorts produced by civil society organisations formed part of the evidence heard on people’s experiences of state capture.
This civil society hearing was not intended to detract from the work of the Zondo Commission. Rather it served as a powerful reminder that state capture has left ordinary people poorer. The People’s Hearing supported efforts to hold the beneficiaries of this form of corruption – in both business and the state – to account through legal mechanisms such as the Zondo Commission on State Capture.
This hearing was organised by the Civil Society Working Group on State Capture.
Nonhle Mbuthuma is a human rights defender working for indigenous peoples’ rights, land rights, and environmental rights in the Xolobeni region of the Eastern Cape. She is also the founder and spokesperson of the Amadiba Crisis Committee who advocate the communities’ ‘Right to Say No’ to mining corporates as per the landmark Xolobeni judgement.
Nomboniso Gasa is an Adjunct Professor at School of Public Law at University of Cape. She is Senior Research Associate at UCT. Her work focussed on Land, Politics, Gender and Cultural issues. Prof. Gasa has a long history in political and womens rights activism extending before the dawn of democracy in South Africa. She has published widely, in newspapers & academic journals.
Yasmin Sooka currently chairs the Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan. She’s a former member of the South African & the Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commissions. Sooka is a leading transitional justice expert and has served as a member of several panels including the  UCT Institutional Reconciliation and Transformation Commission(IRTC), the Secretary General’s Panel investigating sexual violence by French peacekeeping troops in the Central African Republic, UN Panel of Experts on Sri Lanka and is the former Executive Director of the Foundation for Human Rights in South Africa.
#DearJudgeZondo, is the social media campaign linked to the People’s Hearing. It is an open call for the public (on social media) to send Judge Zondo/ the State Capture Inquiry their demands, reflections, hopes for the State Capture Inquiry. The tweets/ posts/ videos and photos posted using the hashtag will be used at the People’s Hearing on the 12th of October.
On the 25th of October 2020, the Civil Society Working Group on State Capture wrote an open letter to Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo highlighting a list of witnesses they believe should be prioritised during the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture, saying that the commission should use its full power to compel them to appear before it. The group believes that the list of highlighted witnesses will be instrumental in strengthening the commission’s work.
