Middle East & Africa | How to capture a state

Jacob Zuma presided over a mountain of sleaze in South Africa

A commission implicates his inner circle and some big firms

IT WAS MEANT to last no more than six months, but the more muck it raked, the more it found. Four years after it was appointed to investigate allegations of “state capture” during the presidency of Jacob Zuma (2009-2018), a judicial commission headed by South Africa’s deputy chief justice, Raymond Zondo, has released the first volume of its findings. It is damning, alleging in forensic detail that Mr Zuma and his friends set about taking over state-owned firms and government institutions in order to siphon cash out of them.

This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline “How to capture a state”

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