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Johannesburg - It rained “rent-seekers” in 2016 – the term used to describe businesses that win riches and benefits by exploiting political connections and processes, including policymaking and regulatory power.
Former public protector Thuli Madonsela’s State of Capture report reveals rent-seeking at ostentatious levels: in it she states that the Gupta brothers and their various networks exploited political connections to do everything from influencing Cabinet appointments to being granted mining licences and seeking to change banking law and practice – the latter through their patronage of Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane.
If the year rained rent-seekers, it poured state capture – the ubiquitous term used to describe the activities of the Gupta family and to define a heightened form of corruption that had taken hold.
