State Capture

A form of systemic corruption in which a private individual, company or interest group gains substantial and sustained influence over a state's formal decision-making processes, such as its lawmaking, regulation or the appointment of officials, to shape those processes in its own favor, distinguished by researchers from ordinary corruption in that state capture seeks to shape the rules and institutions themselves rather than merely securing selective enforcement or non-enforcement of rules that already exist. The term was first used by the World Bank around 2000 to describe conditions in several post-Soviet Central Asian states, and gained wide use following South Africa's Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture, commonly called the Zondo Commission, which investigated allegations that former President Jacob Zuma's administration and the Gupta family had captured South African state-owned enterprises and government departments, reporting between 2018 and 2022.