State capture in South Africa: how the rot set in and how the project was rumbled

Ajay Gupta, left, and Atul Gupta, the masterminds behind state capture in South Africa. Muntu Vilakazi/City Press

It seems the time of reckoning for the massive corruption that has hobbled South Africa’s economy is nigh. Two parts of the three-part report by the judicial commission investigating allegations of state capture under former President Jacob Zuma have now been published. The third is due at the end of February.

“State capture” has become the South African term for what is elsewhere called kleptocracy.