Key points

• State capture and the rise of “shadow states” have undermined development, democracy and security by enabling elite networks to reshape public institutions for private gain.
• In countries such as the DRC, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe, informal networks linking politicians, business elites, judges, military officers and security actors increasingly operate both through and underneath formal democratic institutions.
• State capture takes different forms across contexts: Some systems rely heavily on militarization and coercion, while others operate through procurement systems, judicial influence and business patronage.
• In resource-rich states such as the DRC and Zimbabwe, capture networks linked to mining, fuel and smuggling have fuelled corruption, illicit financial flows, conflict and instability while limiting developmental gains.
• Captured systems weaken democratic accountability by hollowing out courts, regulators, and oversight bodies, while also reducing public trust, increasing the risk of autocratization.
• Effective responses require coordinated domestic and international action, including cross-border investigations, greater financial transparency, procurement reform, stronger oversight institutions, and support for investigative journalism and civil society.

State capture has been increasingly recognized as a major governance challenge due to the way it helps to drive many of the most pressing problems facing contemporary states, including democratic erosion, corruption, economic exclusion, insecurity and declining trust in political institutions. Concerns about the ability of powerful political and economic networks to manipulate public institutions for private gain have grown across a wide range of political systems, from South Africa under Jacob Zuma to debates about oligarchic influence, partisan institutional control, and weakening oversight institutions in the United States and other established democracies. Consequently, state capture is understood not simply as a corruption issue, but as a broader threat to democratic governance, economic inclusion and political stability. These challenges are particularly significant given that focus on governance and transparency among traditional donor countries is on the decline, as policy attention and aid budgets are reduced and diverted to other issues, such as defence, migration and other domestic priorities.

The recognition that state capture had become a major political and governance challenge, combined with the lack of systematic comparative evidence on how it operates across different African states, led to the initiation of the ‘State Capture and the Shadow State in Africa’ research project managed by the Rift Valley Institute (RVI). This report summarizes the project’s main findings, and puts them into conversation with some subsequent and emerging trends. The research focused on four countries at different stages of political and economic development: the Democratic Republic of Congo under Félix Tshisekedi, Uganda under Yoweri Museveni, Zambia under Edgar Lungu, and Zimbabwe under Emmerson Mnangagwa. Conducted between 2020 and 2021, the project sought to understand how state capture operated within these political systems and how variations in leadership, institutions and political economy shaped different forms of capture.

The aim was not to suggest that all African states are captured, but rather to better understand why some appear more vulnerable than others, how capture operates in different contexts, and which institutions are most at risk. Moreover, the study does not argue that state capture is uniquely African. Instead, one of the project’s central contributions is to illustrate the extent to which the networks that sustain state capture are often international in character—linking domestic political actors to foreign governments, multinational corporations, security providers, financial centres and other external partners. As a result, state capture is increasingly shaping development, democracy and security not only in Africa, but also in Europe, North America and other regions of the world.

The report first explains what state capture and the shadow state mean, highlighting how informal networks of political, economic, military and external actors can shape public institutions and state resources behind the scenes. Drawing on evidence from across the case studies, it examines how these networks operate in practice and explores their consequences for development, security, and democracy. The report shows how state capture can distort economic decision-making, weaken public services, increase inequality and divert resources away from citizens, towards politically connected networks. It also analyses how the politicization of military, police, judicial and regulatory institutions can undermine the rule of law, weaken accountability and increase insecurity, coercion and political violence, while gradually eroding public trust and meaningful political competition. The report concludes by setting out recommendations aimed at strengthening transparency, accountability, institutional resilience and international cooperation against increasingly transnational systems of capture.

RVI and the research team are grateful for support from the Open Society Foundation. See the Democracy in Africa website for more: https://democracyinafrica.org/democracy-capture-and-the-shadow-state-in-africa/