Conference Report | Implementing State Capture Commission Recommendations

In October 2023, PARI and CASAC hosted a follow-up to last year’s conference, ‘Implementing the State Capture Commission Recommendations’ — in Johannesburg and online — with the University of Johannesburg and News24 as partners. The aim of the conference was to keep the Commission’s work alive in the public imagination, to review how reforms or interventions might be progressing, to discuss how civil society might support these initiatives and to discuss strategies for holding the Executive, Parliament, other state institutions and the private sector accountable to the commitments they have made to tackle corruption and state capture. In October 2022, the President submitted his response to the State Capture Commission to the National Assembly and in November 2022, the National Assembly adopted an implementation plan to respond to the State Capture Report. Conference sessions covered the following themes: ■ Parliament and the State Capture Commission Recommendations ■ Criminal Justice and Policing: Responding to state capture and organised crime ■ Protected and Encouraged Whistleblowing: What needs to be done? ■ Corporate Capture and Private Sector Accountability ■ Making SOEs Work for the Public Interest: Governance reform ■ Guardrails and Infrastructures for Integrity in Public Procurement ■ Politics, Mobilisation and Change: Does civil society need to change its strategies to make a meaningful impact on state capture? The conference brought together speakers and participants from civil society, academia, business and government. There was a notably strong presence of representatives of state institutions in contrast to conference held in 2022. This report is a summary of discussion, recommendations and next steps that emerged at the conference.