Why the Zondo Commission cost almost One Billion Rand

The Zondo Commission in numbers

Cost: almost 1 billion South African rand

8,655,530 pages printed of documentary evidence

A total of 1,731,106 pages of documentary evidence

75,099 pages of transcribed oral evidence

a petabyte of information data on corruption, fraud and capture.
[a petabyte is 1000⁵ (1000 x1000x1000x1000x1000)]

The team who made it happen

3 categories of personnel:

the Secretariat,
the Commission’s Legal Team
and the Commission’s Investigation Team

What evidence, how many appeared, how many were fingered and how many wanted to prove their innocence?

more than 400 days of evidence and procedural hearing
over 300 witnesses
Approximately 1,438 persons and entities implicated
159 applications for leave to cross examine and/or lead evidence

The true cost to the South Africa:

Except for the billions, and probably almost a trillion rands that were stolen by the looters, who are still walking around freely without a conscience, a very high price was paid by those who tried to stand up against these thugs. 
The biggest cost that can not be quantified, comprehended or ever justified as written in the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into State Capture Report, are carried by those who spoke up:

"It also reveals the considerable costs of state capture. Those costs do not just lie in the millions of Rands that are lost to the tax payer. They also lie in the broken careers of people who tried to resist its stranglehold. The costs include the emotional trauma experienced when managers at SAA were subjected to unlawful and invasive state security vetting. The costs include the precarious livelihoods of those who subsequently faced joblessness because these entities were driven into the ground. Finally, the costs lie in Cabinet decision-making that was motivated not by what was in the best interests of a state owned entity but by the personal preferences of a President."

Acting Chief Justice Raymond Zondo in the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into State Capture Report. Part 1