Western Cape Premier Helen Zille says state capture nearly destroyed the strides made by late former President Nelson Mandela and other leaders to bring economic freedom to all South Africans. Zille was speaking at an Africa Day event in Cape Town.
The 2018 theme is “The Anti-Corruption Year” to unlock a sustainable path to Africa’s transformation. She says state-owned entities and government departments were being used as a front for looting public money and brought the country closer to destabilisation.
“And we came within a whisker of losing it all, through the phenomenon known as state capture and the shell state, in which the state becomes all symbol and no substance. When a small ruling clique captures institutions and uses them to exert their power, rather than them being used by citizens to hold power to account, you have the centralisation of power, the corruption and eventually, a criminal state.”
Zille also called on South Africans to emulate late former President Nelson Mandela and continue to fight for real freedom. Zille says a capable state, free of corruption, is the key to changing lives of the millions of people still affected by the legacy of Apartheid.
“When we remember Nelson Mandela, he didn’t only talk, he turned the talk into a walk – a long walk to freedom. Even if there’s been a disruption or hiatus in that walk. It is our duty on this celebration of the Mandela centenary – to ensure that we start that walk again. Because freedom is never finally won; it has to be fought for in every generation.”
