After Capture: Notes on the current situation and some thoughts for democratising the future

This research paper by Ivor Chipkin of the Public Affairs Research Institute (PARI) analyzes the shift toward 'tyranny' under the presidency of Jacob Zuma in South Africa. The author argues that the Zuma administration's move toward lawlessness and 'state capture' was driven by a political project called 'Radical Economic Transformation,' which viewed the South African Constitution as an obstacle to economic change. The paper details efforts to control the media, weaken state institutions, and the subsequent emergence of a rejuvenated civil-society coalition that used litigation and political mobilization to defend constitutional democracy.

• The Jacob Zuma administration shifted toward tyranny by positioning itself against the rule of law and the Constitution, justifying lawlessness and widespread corruption in the state marketplace as a means to achieve 'Radical Economic Transformation'.
• The 'Radical Economic Transformation' project sought to use the procurement budgets of State-Owned Enterprises, specifically Eskom and Transnet, to displace white firms and establish new black-owned industrial enterprises.
• The National Treasury became a primary target of the Zuma administration because its constitutional mandate to ensure procurement was 'fair, equitable, transparent, competitive and cost-effective' conflicted with demands to set aside 30% of government contracts for Black companies regardless of capacity or price.
• The administration attempted to control information and the media through the Protection of State Information Bill in 2011, the launch of Gupta-owned media platforms like The New Age and ANN7, and the 'institutional capture' of the South African Broadcast Corporation (SABC) under Hlaudi Motsoeneng.
• To protect unlawful activities and immunize key figures from prosecution, the Zuma administration 'captured' and weakened critical state institutions, including the South African Revenue Services (SARS), the Hawks, and the National Prosecuting Agency.
• The PARI report 'Betrayal of the Promise' (May 2017) provided a new analytical framework for opposition, introducing terms such as 'shadow state' and 'silent coup' to describe how political power shifted away from constitutional bodies.
• The political fallout of the 'Betrayal of the Promise' report contributed to a historic rupture in the 'Tripartite Alliance', leading the South African Communist Party (SACP) to contest a local government election as an independent party against the ANC on November 29, 2017.
• Civil society responded to state capture through a coalition—including the 'Future South Africa' coalition—using four primary tactics: litigation in High Courts, social mobilization, political mobilization, and the use of reports to unsettle the government's political hegemony.

APA

Chipkin, I. (n.d.). After Capture: Notes on the current situation and some thoughts for democratising the future. Public Affairs Research Institute. https://pari.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/20180207_AfterCapture_ConferencePaper_NelsonMandelaInitiative-ver1.0.pdf

Chicago

Chipkin, Ivor. After Capture: Notes on the current situation and some thoughts for democratising the future. Public Affairs Research Institute, n.d. https://pari.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/20180207_AfterCapture_ConferencePaper_NelsonMandelaInitiative-ver1.0.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Chipkin |first1=Ivor |title=After Capture: Notes on the current situation and some thoughts for democratising the future |publisher=Public Affairs Research Institute |url=https://pari.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/20180207_AfterCapture_ConferencePaper_NelsonMandelaInitiative-ver1.0.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{chipkinndafter, author = {Chipkin, Ivor}, title = {{After Capture: Notes on the current situation and some thoughts for democratising the future}}, institution = {Public Affairs Research Institute}, url = {https://pari.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/20180207_AfterCapture_ConferencePaper_NelsonMandelaInitiative-ver1.0.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }