Former president Jacob Zuma’s decision to remove Themba Maseko as head of the Government Communications and Information System was one of the earliest acts of state capture by the Guptas.

This was according to the state capture commission of inquiry report, the first part of which was handed to President Cyril Ramaphosa yesterday by Acting Chief Justice Raymond Zondo.

In the second volume of the first part of the report, the commission has noted that evidence before it painted a picture of a calculated strategy by the Guptas to appropriate public funds from state-owned enterprises to their The New Age newspaper.

The State Capture report recommends criminal prosecution against former Transnet CEO Brian Molefe, former SAA CEO Collin Matjila, and Tony Gupta for fraud and violation of the Public Finance Management Act, among other charges.

Former president Jacob Zuma emerged as the single most important enabling figure in the first volume of the State Capture Inquiry’s report into widespread corruption and looting between 2009 and 2018.

Ramaphosa says the recommendations in the report will be implemented, but that government will wait for the full report before it will act.

Ramaphosa says law enforcement agencies are free to act on the report immediately.

In its damning section on the SA Revenue Service under former commissioner Tom Moyane, the State Capture Inquiry found that the tax agency offered one of the clearest demonstrations of the patterns of state capture.

It says SARS was systemically and deliberately weakened, chiefly through the restructuring of its institutional capacity, strategic appointments and dismissals of key individuals, as well as a pervasive culture of fear and bullying – a clear example of state capture.

To read Ramaphosa’s full statement on the report, and to download it click HERE.