Pretoria - Democratic Alliance leader Mmusi Maimane on Friday handed over a dossier of information to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) in Pretoria which he said was an "evidence pack" proving criminality on the part of African National Congress secretary-general Ace Magashule.
"The National Director of Public Prosecution [Advocate Shamila Batohi] ultimately apologised, she couldn't be here. She sent senior people in her office including Bulelwa Makeke [head of NPA communication] to come and receive the documents that we wanted to hand over ... evidence that points to the fact that the Free State was captured, it shows there is a system of corruption, nothing has changed, you may have new actors in place but the stealing is continuing," Maimane told journalists outside the NPA offices.
"We also wanted to put forward evidence that shows that we have opened the charges, so this is the third group of charges that we have opened and I've interacted with the police, the police are now hamstrung on how they investigate. We cannot be living in a country where corruption is going through cycles and no one is being arrested."
The opposition leader was with DA Free State premier candidate Patricia Kopane and a few other officials.
Maimane said he had submitted to the NPA on Friday "an affidavit that shows that the ANC is a racketeering organisation" which had captured the state to loot resources.
"They have forgotten the people and are now dealing with just themselves and [their] family members. It's clear, if you're a child, a daughter, a son of an ANC politician it is heaven for you because you are going to benefit ... whether it's the president's [Cyril Ramaphosa and former president Jacob Zuma] son Duduzane or Andile, whether it's Ace's daughter - it's all a business. Ultimately we came to raise those concerns and I've requested that we move away from policing to prosecutions," said Maimane.
He said the commission of inquiry into the state capture scandal was probing some of the alleged malfeasance, but based on different terms of reference.
"This is about the act of corruption itself, under the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act that requires that one needs to report these cases and there must be prosecution. I really believe that people are not going to be returned to Parliament as criminals, arrests must be made and prosecutions must be fulfilled."
Maimane also handed a copy of Pieter-Louis Myburgh's contentious book "Gangster State: Unraveling Ace Magashule's Web of Capture", which exposes the alleged corruption of Magashule, in his home province of Free State, to the NPA.
Magashule vehemently denies the book's thesis that he stood at the centre of a web of corruption and has threatened to sue the author and publisher.