South Africa’s former president Jacob Zuma and current Mineral Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe were on Tuesday referred for investigation by a corruption inquiry, with a view to establishing potential graft charges.
The inquiry, established in 2018 to examine allegations of high-level graft during Zuma’s nine years in power from 2009, published its findings after more than three years of investigations.
The report said there were grounds to believe Zuma had passed privately-owned services company Bosasa confidential information about criminal investigations into the company and helped inhibit its prosecution in return for bribes, in breach of his obligations as president under the constitution.
“The evidence revealed that corruption was Bosasa’s way of doing business,” the inquiry’s report said. “It bribed politicians, government officials, President Jacob Zuma and others extensively.”
Bosasa is now in voluntary liquidation after banks closed its accounts amid graft allegations.
Zuma who denies any wrongdoing has refused to cooperate with the inquiry leading to his imprisonment last July for contempt of court.
Evidence relating to Mantashe for further investigation was also referred by the inquiry, saying there was a reasonable prospect this would uncover a corruption case against him.
The commission said Bosasa installation of security systems at three of Mantashe’s properties without charge was a likely effort to curry favour with the then secretary-general of the ruling African National Congress (ANC).
In testimony to the inquiry, Mantashe said security upgrades were made but that there was nothing untoward about them.
The report said that authorities should also investigate ANC officials that helped arrange a free-of-charge election “war room” from Bosasa.
