The Green Party of South Africa (GPSA) says that there are sufficient grounds for high treason charges to be brought against key figures and groups that facilitated state capture in South Africa.

In South Africa, the crime of high treason includes unlawful conduct with the intention of changing the constitutional structure, threatening the independence of or overthrowing the government of the republic.

The GPSA said that all individuals or groups implicated in state capture should be charged along these lines – including current or previous ministers, presidents, state-owned enterprise personnel and perpetrators outside of government.

“It becomes clear that former president Jacob Zuma should be a key person charged for treason against the South African people,” the GPSA’s Anisha Garib said.

“Zuma is, however, not the only traitor of South Africans’ trust – a wide network of participants from the governing ANC and elsewhere enabled collusion against the South African population.”

“Even individuals from Julius Malema’s EFF reportedly committed such treason by looting funds that thousands of South Africans entrusted to government institutions, as revealed in the VBS scandal.”

According to the GPSA, state capture amounts to a “silent coup” of the South African government.

“This alone is sufficient grounds for bringing high treason charges. Through state capture, the true decision-makers were not democratically elected people, as required by the Constitution,” Garib said.

“This is in all respects equivalent to the overthrow of the government of the republic.”

She added that by selling South Africa to the highest bidder, citizens were deprived of their sovereign right to democratically determine their government leaders, independent from outside forces.

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