State capture and serious organised crime in South Africa: The case of the South African Revenue Service
Project Completed
PROJECT TEAM
Dr Zenobia Ismail
University of Birmingham
Contact: z.ismail@bham.ac.uk
Zenobia Ismail has several years of experience in quantitative and qualitative research. At the GSDRC she has written extensively on youth employment as well as many other areas of international development. She has been involved in impact evaluations in South Africa and public opinion research a several other African countries including Zambia, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Mozambique and Malawi. Before this she was a researcher at the Centre for Social Development in Africa at the University of Johannesburg. She worked on research projects relating to disability, cash transfers and voting behaviour.
Robin Richards
Independent Researcher
Contact: robinr@netactive.co.za
Robin Richards is an independent policy analyst and research consultant. He has worked and written on governance issues in southern and South Africa. As Research Programme Manager for the Centre for Policy Studies, he managed a number of governance and policy-oriented research projects. Previously he occupied research positions at the Universities of Natal, Rhodes and Fort Hare with a focus on good governance, socio-economic and quality of life indicators as well as youth development. As a research consultant, he has undertaken a wide range of projects, focussing on socio-economic and governance-related and evaluations and studies.
PROJECT SUMMARY
This research project is a detailed case study of state capture at the South African Revenue Service (SARS). State capture is more endemic than ordinary corruption at an individual level and occurs at a far wider systemic level. State capture entails a systematic and well organised effort of a group of people to misdirect public resources from their intended purpose into the hands of a private elite for corruption and political patronage purposes. It is supported by high-level political protection through the infiltration and weakening of state institutions.
In South Africa, the recent Zondo Commission of Inquiry into State Capture set out the results of investigations into allegations of state capture by the former President Jacob Zuma and associates targeting several state-owned enterprises and other state agencies including law enforcement agencies, the criminal justice system, intelligence and revenue collection agencies, including SARS. Prior to the Zuma presidency SARS played a key role in detecting the misappropriation of money from public institutions at national and provincial level. This project seeks to understand the role that SARS plays in the detection, investigation and prevention of serious and organised crime and how this has evolved over time, including how this changed during and after the Zuma presidency as well as the extent to which SARS has recovered under President Ramaphosa’s administration. The findings of this research will help to contribute to the wider conceptual literature looking at how state capture operates as well as providing in-depth understanding of the specific case.
PUBLICATIONS
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State capture and kleptocracy in South Africa: The case of the South African Revenue Service (SARS) (SOC ACE Briefing Note 18)