‘State capture inquiry was SA’s first step in tackling corruption’

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Oxford University’s School of Government Professor, Christopher Stone, says the State Capture Inquiry was the country’s first step to taking accountability regarding tackling corruption.

This comes after President Cyril Ramaphosa outlined government’s efforts to combat corruption, stating that a society-wide response is necessary.

Addressing the two-day National Anti-Corruption Advisory Council dialogue that ended yesterday, President Ramaphosa said the government has invested in rebuilding law enforcement agencies and initiated 16 legislative reforms.

Eight of these legislative reforms are before parliament.

Stone says South Africa needs system reforms to overcome corruption.

He says, “This is about systems that allowed them to take over and capture the systems of the state and those systems have to be closed up, those systems have to be changed. So prosecution yes, absolutely, but just this spectacle of seeing people go to prison won’t as we’ve seen stop the continuing corruption that continues to plague the SOEs, the municipalities and the ministries. So you need real leadership, you need real reform, systematic reform and you need those prosecutions.”

Related video: CASAC Executive Secretary Lawson Naidoo on the State Capture report: