Thread. A few additional thoughts on the SSA and state capture. One thing the Zondo Commission is systematically doing, is making “state capture” - an idea that once revolved entirely around the Guptas - increasingly redundant in light of what the ANC has been up to. 1/9

Sure, the Guptas got up to a lot of corruption and must be held to account but what these SSA revelations have done is reveal that the greatest enemy of the state, is the ANC itself. Can a governing party capture the state? Sure, and the SSA is key to understanding how. 2/9

For an institution to be politicised, you need to load it with people loyal to politics, not the people. To do that, you need an informal policy that allows you to use your majority to appoint acolytes. Cadre deployment is how the ANC does this, to every institution. 3/9

From those interested in some background to the idea, here is a column I wrote on cadre deployment in 2016, which sets it all out 4/9: https://www.businesslive.co.za/rdm/politics/2016-03-23-state-capture-weve-been-having-it/

The subversion of the SSA is an inevitable consequence of the ANC’s attitude to the state and the public service: there is no neutrality or impartiality - every state mechanism is politicised. We have now seen this on a hundred different fronts. Why is that? 5/9

The truth is, the ANC began to capture the state as far back as 1997, when it introduced the policy. Zuma admittedly reduced the idea to naked self-interest and incompetence but, regardless, the politicisation of the state is the problem. The state must serve the people. 6/9

Cadre deployment central to understanding that and if the Zondo Commission is serious about root causes, the ANC needs to be called to explain the policy and why it has destroyed the public service. Otherwise, you can arrest people, but the problem will repeat. 7/9

There are a hundred SSA’s out there. It is a particularly dangerous manifestation of the problem, given its mandate, but the problem is universal. It cannot be that the ANC can continue to by-pass the constitution in this way and turn the public service into its play thing. 8/9

The ANC must be called to account. Cadre deployment is absolutely destructive and underpins every element chaos and corruption. It is the map via which the ANC subverts plunders. It needs to be interrogated. Ignore it, and the Commission will achieve nothing long term. 9/9