Jacob Zuma was fully committed to helping Guptas capture the state, report notes

Former president Jacob Zuma played a key role in helping the Gupta family capture Eskom, the latest instalment of the state capture report, authored by state capture inquiry head Raymond Zondo, has found.

“The evidence proves a scheme by the Guptas to capture Eskom, install the Guptas’ selected officials in strategic positions within Eskom as members of the board, the committees of the board and the executives and then divert Eskom’s assets to the Guptas’ financial advantage,” part of the report dealing with the capture of Eskom reads.

“Central to the Guptas’ scheme of state capture was [former] president [Jacob] Zuma, who the Guptas must have identified at a very early stage as somebody whose character was such that they could use him against the people of SA, his own country and his own government to advance their own business interests — and President Zuma readily opened the doors for the Guptas to go into the state-owned entities (SOEs) and help themselves to the money and assets of the people of SA.”

The report found that Zuma helped the Gupta family place their choice of executives at the embattled power utility.

“When one has regard to all the evidence heard by the commission, it is quite clear that the Guptas were in control of the Eskom board. The president of the country, Mr Jacob Zuma, and minister [Lynne} Brown were manipulating the situation at Eskom to advance the business interests of the Guptas.”

The report found it was clear from quite early in his first term that Zuma “would do anything that the Guptas wanted him to do for them”. 

TimesLIVE​