The State Capture phenomenon had been around as early as 2014 during former president Jacob Zuma’s administration, Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan told the State Capture Commission of Inquiry on Monday.
He said individual corrupt activities, through procuring goods and services from third parties at inflated prices, has been around since 2009.
“These acts [of corruption] were popular as early as 2009, such as the story of a bottle of water,” Gordhan says.
“The bottle costs you R6 at a shop, but the government is charged R40 a bottle [by third parties].
“Another phenomenon spiked in 2015 in many institutions, regarding procuring complex pieces of equipment and spares, for example, that of an aircraft.
“Policy decision was taken by boards that there will be no buying directly from the manufacturer. Buying from a company in East Rand which has no capacity to produce that part, would cost you $16 million (but rather) than (pay) the $40 at the manufacturer, you will pay $16m.
“This is to illustrate the level at which [state capture] starts. Events that took place at Treasury in 2015 and the manner in which the nuclear deal issue was tackled...all suggested that there was more to it than the individual acts of corruption...there was a wider set of schemes,” he says.
Gordhan said the “final penny dropped” when the Gupta emails that were leaked to the media emerged publicly and people started “connecting the dots” about the impact of state capture.
Gordhan said it was not government policy to buy through third parties, adding: “But the constant question for us all should be who benefits? Where does the money go? Who designs these processes?”