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Corruption and State Capture in South Africa
- Morgan McBride
- Jun 9
- 7 min read
Corruption has maintained an extensive legacy in the ecosystem of South Africa’s political economy, with the ripple effects reaching its population of approximately sixty-five million people.
In 2021, Human Rights Watch reported that South Africa failed to take necessary steps to improve the protection of its citizens’ social and economic rights. Violent riots erupted due to the imprisonment of former President Jacob Zuma for contempt of court, causing approximately 330 deaths and an estimated 50.4 billion rands (3.4 billion U.S. dollars) of damage. The nation faced additional human rights issues like COVID-19 programs excluding certain identity groups, increased violence against women, and low levels of accountability for previous instances of violence.
Corruption has maintained an extensive legacy in the ecosystem of South Africa’s political economy, with the ripple effects reaching its population of approximately sixty-five million people.
According to Gbenga Lawal, corruption occurs in an institution’s political, economic, and administrative spheres. Thus, corruption quickly worsens in countries where institutions, the rule of law, and adherence to formal rules are not rigorously enforced. Many scholars consider Africa’s primary mode of corruption as endemic, meaning that it perverts the use of connection networks and reciprocity to heighten an individual’s power.
J.P. Olivier de Sardan explores the term ‘corruption complex’, which expands the scope of corruption to nepotism, abuses of power, influence-peddling, and other misappropriations. The complex persists in the administration of South Africa at all levels, which entrenches the issues into already weak institutions.
Jacob Zuma’s Administration
Jacob Zuma began his political career by joining the African National Congress (ANC) in 1959, and he became involved in the organization’s military wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe, in 1962. After serving ten years in prison for anti-apartheid actions, Zuma returned to ANC leadership as their deputy general secretary in 1991. Swiftly climbing the ranks within the ANC and broader South African politics, Jacob Zuma became the officially elected president of South Africa in May of 2009. The triumphant progression of Zuma’s political career has been closely linked to extensive allegations of corrupt behavior over the years.
Before becoming South Africa’s president, Zuma’s first major criminal allegation derived from his ties to the corruption scandal of businessman Schabir Shaik’s arms deal. Shaik — the South African businessman — bribed Zuma to secure a portion of a multibillion-dollar arms deal that South Africa entered into with French and German companies in the mid-1990s.
Later on, in 2006, Jacob Zuma was charged with raping Fezekile Kuzwayo — the daughter of the ANC’s Chief Representative in Zimbabwe — in his Johannesburg home. Fezekile Kuzwayo became a pariah in her own hometown at the hands of family friends, while Zuma and the ANC managed to get the case dismissed.
In 2007, Zuma faced new corruption and fraud charges, with the addition of money laundering, racketeering, and tax evasion charges. The prosecution ultimately threw out the charges due to evidence that Zuma’s political opposition, President Thabo Mbeki, or his supporters interfered in the case.
President Jacob Zuma, once again, faced criminal corruption charges based on a misuse of government resources in connection to the Gupta family’s use of a private plane at a high-security government air base. The Guptas controlled numerous companies that gained lucrative contracts from the South African government through its official departments and state-owned conglomerates. This trend continued the following year when South Africa’s public protector published his investigation’s findings that Zuma used public funds to renovate his homestead with upgrades such as a new swimming pool, an amphitheater, and a cattle kraal. Because Zuma benefited from public funds unduly, the courts ordered him to repay a portion of the renovation costs.
Jacob Zuma ultimately offered his resignation from the presidency on February 14, 2018, amidst political and public pressures. After his resignation, prosecutors reinstated Zuma’s corruption charges from the 2005 arms deal case, which comprised of sixteen charges of racketeering, corruption, money laundering, and fraud. The updated charges led to the Zondo commission’s investigation of the corruption, yet Zuma refused to participate in the investigation. The Constitutional Court charged Zuma with contempt of court for his refusal, and he gained a fifteen-month jail sentence. However, two months into his jail sentence, he gained medical parole, allowing him to serve his sentence from home.
Cyril Ramaphosa’s Administration
Cyril Ramaphosa became South Africa’s president in 2018, and has led the nation ever since. Earlier in his career, Ramaphosa amplified his impacts by improving the working conditions and wages of Black miners in South Africa. The dismantling of aparteid led to Ramaphosa’s service as the ANC’s secretary general, which saw him become the party’s chief negotiator in domestic matters.
After spending some time pursuing entrepreneurial and investment pursuits, Cyril Ramaphosa earned the title of deputy president of the ANC in 2012 at the party’s leadership conference to serve under Jacob Zuma. Zuma’s subsequent resignation in 2018 launched Ramaphosa’s trajectory to the presidency, as he automatically became the acting president of South Africa.
President Ramaphosa endured external challenges and internal challenges from his own political party during the first few years of his presidency. However, the “Farmgate” scandal of 2022 led to accusations against Ramaphosa regarding the cover-up of a theft in 2020 of at least four million dollars in foreign money that had been kept in a couch at Ramaphosa’s game farm. The allegations further stated that Ramaphosa had kidnapped and bribed the robbery suspects.
According to Cyril Ramaphosa, a break-in occurred at his game farm, through which a smaller amount of cash {$580,000} from buffalo sales through his livestock business had been stolen. He denied covering up the crime and claimed that he reported the incident. Public Protector Kholeka Gcaleka subsequently released a report that found no evidence that Ramaphosa violated his oath of office or exposed himself to any conflicts of interest.
However, in late May of 2026, South Africa’s parliament announced its intentions to launch an impeachment inquiry into President Cyril Ramaphosa over the “Farmgate” scandal. With Ramaphosa’s credibility and authority under question, concern remains prevalent regarding the presence of political corruption within South Africa’s government.
Corruption’s Links to the Apartheid System
The rise of corruption in South Africa is closely linked to how the apartheid system fell apart. Apartheid in South Africa persisted throughout the 20th century, in which social policy permitted the racial segregation of South Africans. Based on an individual’s race, the oppressive policies controlled the home lives, occupations, education, voting opportunities, and intimate relationships of South Africans.
Throughout the peak of apartheid control, the patrons of the Afrikaner National Party existed within a strong network rooted in an ethos of service to the people. A scramble for personal enrichment soon led to pro-apartheid elites gaining a strong interest in growing offshore bank accounts as opposed to working for the people.
For instance, the Muldergate Scandal of the late 1970s involved the usage of clandestine funds to manipulate South African media and siphon off money to officials or government supporters. The decline of white rule in the mid-1980s created an inclination for National Party members to grab any remaining opportunities for wealth and power. Thus, the ANC took over the nation’s stronghold of political power, and it inherited weak structures that bolstered opportunities for corrupt behavior.
Post-apartheid South Africa was essentially an empty shell with weak institutions and weak political leadership. In its origins, the ANC government adamantly pursued a pattern of inherited inequalities from the apartheid regime. Many existing development programs in the post-apartheid era targeted urban areas of “better-off people,” while most of South Africa’s poor lived in the former homelands and rural areas. Funds designated for various development initiatives often went to waste since the ANC often failed to gain the required infrastructure for the development projects.
Studies also found that the black middle and upper classes comprised the primary beneficiaries of recent development programs, even though they make up a small proportion of the country’s population of roughly sixty-one million. All of this coalesces to stifle social and economic development throughout the country, and this source of the inadequacy derives from the government.
The Costs of Corruption
Corruption principally subverts a nation’s social values, erodes governmental legitimacy, and stifles economic growth. According to Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa’s current president, the corruption under Jacob Zuma’s administration cost South Africa an estimated loss of thirty-four billion dollars.
State capture and political corruption blew a hole in the nation’s public finances, while also presenting a loss of tens of billions of dollars from Africa’s most advanced economy. The Institute of Internal Auditors of South Africa’s study presents that the nation lost approximately 700 million rands over the two decades following its introduction into political democracy. Those numbers are likely even higher, since most of the country’s corruption goes unnoticed and unpunished; thus, it also goes unmeasured.
State capture is a form of corruption in which businesses and politicians conspire to influence a country’s decision-making to advance their own interests.
“Classic corruption involves individual politicians taking side payments for preferential treatment in outsourcing contracts, a small deal here, a license payment there. Full-on state capture is where corporations can influence the nature of the legislative process, and political actors allow them to do so for private gain. The whole policy-making structure of the state becomes commodified — something that politicians are willing to sell.” — Dr. Abby Innes
In the political sector, corruption deteriorates the rule of law and democratic processes in South Africa. An October 2020 South African Institute of Race Relations study concluded that approximately 51.2 percent of the ANC’s National Executive Committee members had been implicated in serious acts of corruption.
Scholar Jonathan Hyslop argued that liberal and conservative critics of the South African government maintain that the bureaucracy is experiencing a qualitative decline and that it stems from the ANC’s disregard for public institutions and proper protocols. Yet, the African National Congress contends that its leadership’s corruption issues directly stem from the nation’s apartheid history.
So What?
Corrupt practices and behaviors largely steal from a nation’s ordinary people, especially the poor, who gain nothing from these actions. It also transforms into a rather insidious systems that harms the future of a country, especially one strife with weak institutions and poor political leadership.
Corruption in South Africa does not start and end with Jacob Zuma’s actions. Corrupt practices began way before his time during the apartheid era.
However, the continued inability of the country’s political leadership to effectively combat corruption and state capture furthers South Africa’s trajectory toward being a failing state.
“The gap between anti-corruption rhetoric and real law enforcement remains a breeding ground for impunity, weakening governance and leaving citizens to bear the cost, especially in Africa.” — Researcher Nnaemeka Ohamadike
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Sources:
https://sahistory.org.za/people/fezekile-ntsukela-kuzwayo-khwezi
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https://www.news24.com/Fin24/nine-corruption-scandals-worse-than-nkandla-20150922
https://www.ft.com/content/e0991464-ee79-11e9-bfa4-b25f11f42901
https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2022/country-chapters/south-africa
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