Cape Town – State capture may have cost South Africa R100bn or more, Minister of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan told reporters on Tuesday.
Gordhan said he would, however, leave it Judge Raymond Zondo's judicial inquiry into state capture to conduct the full investigation of the matter.
He also laid down the law regarding practices of state-owned entities, their executives and their board members.
Among other things, he insisted entities would review their structures, revenue generating mechanisms and major contracts entered into in recent years, saying board members would not be allowed to influence or get involved in procurement and supply chain management.
When asked to quantify the cost of state capture to the fiscus, Gordhan simply said: “We speculated that R100bn or more could have been lost to state capture.”
Gordhan said he was optimistic that the state capture inquiry would get to the bottom of how the Guptas and their associates managed to orchestrate state capture, and exactly how much was lost.
He said the continued efforts of their allies in some of these entities, to erase evidence of their actions, must not succeed.
“Disappearance of documents is becoming a bit of an industry. People don’t want the inquiry to get hold of evidence of what they have done. The good people in these institutions must provide all [the assistance] they can and help Justice Zondo conduct this inquiry,” Gordhan said.