Zondo bemoans 'freedom fighters' fingered in state capture
Chief Justice Raymond Zondo has lamented individuals who made many sacrifices in the fight against apartheid, only to become involved in corruption and state capture.
He delivered the annual Oliver Reginald Tambo public lecture at the Fort Hare University on Friday.
Zondo, who chaired the commission of inquiry into state capture prior to being appointed as head of the judiciary, managed to lay bare the grand corruption and theft of public resources at state institutions.
He says the scale of the corruption is eroding the gains of democracy.
"The journey that we have travelled as a country from 1994 and we look at where we are, there are many things that we see every day which are the opposite of what these leaders sacrificed for.
"There are many things, fishers of South African life, which are completely in conflict with the kind of South Africa that OR Tambo worked and sacrificed so much for."
Zondo believes that self-interest in driving much of the decay.
"Some of the people who are behind the state capture and corruption are people who themselves sacrificed a lot in order to ensure that apartheid was defeated, but they don't have the kind of values that OR Tambo had. Some of them want to make sure that they eat first and their families eat first.
"They have no shame that they knew Tambo personally, and that wherever he is with people like Mandela, would turn in their grave when they see whatever they are doing.”
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