An Analysis of the Development of State Capture and Its Indicator in South Africa, 2016–2018

Abstract

As an international and domestic threat to countries, the phenomenon of “state capture” has suddenly gained the attention of scholars and South Africans who have an interest in political issues. Given the fundamentality of its continuity in the context of South Africa, this article solely analyses this phenomenon within the period of 2016–2018. The central aim is to understand the development of this phenomenon and its indicator in the stated period. The adoption of the periodisation approach in this article does not necessarily sideline the fact that the phenomenon of state capture is characterised by the presidency of Jacob Zuma but only gained momentum during the period post-2016. Methodologically, this article relied on a desktop research approach in the form of document review and made use of thematic content analysis to attend to the central objective of the article. Equally important was the adoption of Afrocentricity as the alternative theoretical lens to interpret the nature of this subject. The preliminary findings of this article illustrate that state capture manifests in a form of lobby and influence in government policies and operation, thus leading to poor governance policies and aggravated socio-economic developmental problems. The article recommends a strong call for transparency and effective corruption and state capture watch mechanisms.