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Opposition parties unconvinced by President Ramaphosa’s anti-corruption strategy

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Opposition political parties have generally described President Cyril Ramaphosa’s address to the nation on Sunday as unconvincing.

When President Cyril Ramaphosa addressed the nation on Sunday night, he said that government would overhaul its anti-corruption strategy and ensure the independence of prosecutors.

He was responding to the recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture.

Ramaphosa highlights how state capture has robbed the country of a bright future: 

The commission was established to examine allegations of corruption during former president Jacob Zuma’s nine years in power.

It found that Zuma had allowed the Gupta’s to plunder state resources and influence policy. Zuma has denied any wrongdoing.

National spokesperson of the Democratic Alliance Solly Malatsi says Ramaphosa’s timing of the delivery of his speech is questionable.

“One has to wonder, even the timing of this presser, that it is more of a response to try and extinguish some of the political pressure that he’s been getting with the criticism from Presidents Mbeki, Motlanthe and Jacob Zuma over the last few years. Because there was nothing substantive, nothing ground-breaking in substance in what should be new era in governance in South Africa.”

No inspiration for public confidence

Inkatha Freedom Party leader Velenkosini Hlabisa says Ramaphosa’s speech does not inspire public confidence.

“They have effectively failed our country in every respect. Even this one, is only going to target weak and non-significant people, it will not touch the high-ranking leaders of the ANC who are implicated in the state capture.”

No action against implicated figures  

Freedom Front Plus leader Dr Pieter Groenewald says no action is likely to be taken against those that the commission’s report has fingered.

“Many of these recommendations and what the honourable President has just said, is actually supposed to be part of the whole new democracy since 1994. And it is actually part also of the 1996 final Constitution of South Africa. Let’s take the members of the executive for instance that the President referred to, if you go and read the Constitution, it states that in effect it must be accountable to Parliament.”

Political Analyst Professor Susan Booysen calls for stronger state institutions that will be able to call high ranking officials accused of corruption to order: 

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