SACP wants judicial commission into state capture to start its work

28th August 2017 By: News24Wire

SACP wants judicial commission into state capture to start its work

South African Communist Party (SACP) general secretary Blade Nzimande says that, in the face of numerous email leaks showing unabated looting of public resources, the independent judicial commission agreed to by the African National Congress (ANC), is taking too long to get on with its job.

"We are concerned that everybody agrees about the commission, including the President [Jacob Zuma]. It is one of the things we will have to discuss with the ANC, as to how far the establishment of the judicial commission is.

"We cannot be talking about a commission forever and there is no movement on the issue," Nzimande told journalists after the party’s 14th Congress Central Committee first plenary session came to a close in Kempton Park, East Rand, on Sunday.

On Friday, SACP first deputy general secretary Solly Mapaila said that they would be meeting with the ANC on Monday.

Nzimande reiterated the SACP’s call for an independent Judicial Commission of Inquiry, based on the Public Protector’s report into state capture. They called for action to be taken against those who are implicated in the Gupta leaks before more money left South Africa.

"Where there are clear-cut, prima facie cases of wrongdoing, the criminal justice institutions must move with urgency and determination, without which more billions of rand of public money will continue be spirited out of our country to Dubai and other off-shore locations," he said.

Nzimande added that the party, which is part of the tripartite alliance, supported the parliamentary inquiry into state capture, saying that it should also focus on investigating claims that the infamous Guptas only pay a portion of their taxes.

The Gupta's recent sales of their media houses and Tegeta were described as brazen attempts by the Guptas "to restore suspended banking services, to evade tax responsibilities, and to expatriate yet more ill-gotten wealth".

Nzimande said that the South African Reserve Bank, as well as commercial banks, needed to act "before billions more rands of public resources disappear into Dubai".

He applauded the Ahmed Timol family for pursuing the reopening an inquest into his death. They repeated their call for a new inquest into Chris Hani’s assassination and welcomed the rejection of his killer Janusz Walus’s request for early release.