Former president Jacob Zuma's woes are far from over after he suffered another blow for his assertion that state capture is a non-existing term.

This as South African Communist Party (SACP) leader Blade Nzimande accused Zuma of misleading the public and, in particular, the youth.

Speaking at the Cosatu 13th National Congress which elected Zingiswa Losi as its first woman president in Gallagher Estate, Midrand on Tuesday, Nzimande explained: "When you talk about state capture, we also need to understand what we mean by state and revolution. Our state is South Africa [and] is based on our territory, population, national sovereignty and the rule of law, [and] it [is] made up of many institutions over and above just parliament, the executive and the judiciary."

Nzimande's remarks were a response to Zuma who told hundreds of students at the Walter Sisulu University of Technology in Mthatha, Easter Cape last week that the existence of state capture was not true despite the former president setting up the judicial commission of inquiry into state capture earlier this year.

Zuma told the students that the state is composed of three branches - the executive, parliament and the judiciary - and asked which one of those was captured.

"There is no state that is captured, the judiciary is not captured, parliament is not captured. So where is the state capture? asked Zuma in his address to the students. “There is no state capture in South Africa, there are people who did things to others, but there is no such thing called state capture. Let us not swallow everything that is given to us." 

Without mentioning his name, Nzimande said Zuma was out of order to suggest that all spheres of government needed to be captured in order for state capture to exist.

"In addition, we have state-owned entities, financial institutions and different spheres of government that are exercising state power. We can't say if one component of the state is being corrupted therefore there is no state capture, we must wait for the totality of the state to be corrupted. As the communist party, we are not going to allow these things to be said and confuse young people with things that are wrong."

Zuma appointed deputy chief justice Raymond Zondo to chair the commission currently under way in Parktown, Johannesburg, after a recommendation by chief justice Mogoeng Mogoeng.