President Cyril Ramaphosa said he could "possibly" have done things differently to prevent the entrenchment of state capture after he was elected as then-president Jacob Zuma's deputy in 2012.
He told members of the South African National Editors' Forum (Sanef) during a 90-minute on-the-record conversation at his office in Tuynhuys at Parliament on Thursday evening that the media deserves credit for the role it played in "prising open" the recesses of state capture, and that his government is determined to clean the state of corruption.
Ramaphosa said he only became aware of corruption through media reports, but that the full extent of state capture only became clear to him when the tranche of Gupta emails was leaked.
He told editors in his opening remarks that the question South Africans need to ask is why state capture was allowed to happen, and how it became so deeply entrenched in the state.
"Could I have done things differently? Possibly. But we are where we are now, where we are all able to take action, collectively. We now have a commission (of inquiry into state capture) that will look into this. My message is to look ahead. We applaud the media and Parliament, who showed bravery and determination. Those who are found to have been complicit should be held accountable," he said.
Ramaphosa was Zuma's deputy when the state capture project went into overdrive from 2014 onwards, with the Gupta family's alleged attempts to buy a new finance minister, the gutting of Eskom and the hijack of a number of ministries, including the ministry of mineral resources.
"Many of you (in the media) had already raised a number of issues on a piecemeal basis... that happening, and that is happening... then we had this and that... but when you finally prised open the whole thing, it became patently clear that we were dealing with a much bigger problem than we had ever imagined," the president said.
When the rot at Eskom was first reported, he thought it might be an isolated incident which authorities could address, and that "it was just a wheel-nut that came loose". When reports about the spread of state capture continued, Ramaphosa said he still believed it to be "just that".
The Gupta leaks, however, convinced Ramaphosa "that the wheels had come off... completely".
"These things happened in a sequential way; the signs came one after the other, and then it became a deluge," he said.
Ramaphosa, who referred to state capture and corruption at various times during the engagement — held in a briefing room next to the Tuynhuys banqueting hall — said South Africa must "never again" be exposed to grand corruption.
The president fielded a number of questions about the state of race relations in the country, and was pressed to comment on the seemingly high levels of polarisation in society. He told editors he is "concerned" about relations, and that his government remains committed to reconciliation.
He admitted the ANC has "weakened" its position on nonracialism, but that a return to those values as enshrined in the party's Freedom Charter was one of the pillars on which he built his election campaign for the party's leadership.
He told editors that South Africans need to "accept" the past and also understand that the country's history has had a negative effect on good race relations. "We remain committed to building a society where all groups are valued equally, where all languages and cultures feel at home. I am worried, yes, but I also see it as an opportunity."
The issue of land reform and expropriation was not pertinently discussed, but Rampahosa did say that he would like to see an agricultural revolution take place in the country.
"I am a farmer and I'm passionate about all things farming. But when I travel across the length and breadth of the country I often see land that is lying fallow. Why can we not revolutionise the sector, like they have done in Ethiopia?
"I am pained when I see women and young men next to the roads in our villages and rural towns... why don't we generate an agricultural revolution?"