Ramaphosa spoke about how in the past three months the administration he leads had taken steps to stem the tide of corrupt activities‚ including repositioning a number of institutions and changing personnel. However‚ he acknowledged that the job was far from done.

“It will take some time to recalibrate and realign everything so that we can return to building good governance process. What we can say is that this administration is determined to root out corruption.”

Ramaphosa said his administration was determined to ensure that those who had been involved in corrupt activities are brought to book‚ that they are held accountable for their actions which harmed not only the image of the country but dented efforts to improve lives of the people.

When questioned on why government didn't act to stop state capture early on when the evidence of wrongdoing first emerged instead of waiting until the phenomenon had damaged the country‚ he said: “You guys [media] were already raising a number of issues on a piecemeal basis … but when you finally prized the whole thing wide open with the Gupta emails‚ I think it became patently clear to everyone that we were dealing with a much bigger problem than we had ever imagined.”

Ramaphosa said when media reports first emerged on state-owned entities like Eskom‚ they thought those were isolated incidents that could be addressed by the investigative authorities “[where] maybe it’s just a wheel nut that has gone loose”.

“But when the Gupta emails came out it became clear that the wheels have actually come off completely‚” he said.

“Could I have done anything differently? Possibly‚ but we are where we are now‚ where we are all able to take action. We have a commission that is going to look at this‚ let’s look forward to all that.”

Ramaphosa said he continued to see this as a new period in the country‚ which he and others have called “a new dawn”. He said it brought a new mood and people knew deep in their hearts and minds that “we have a new situation and are filled with a great deal of enthusiasm of things being different and changing from what we have just gone through”.