Corruption cases remain rife as ‘leaders fail SA’ – report
“The metro is heavily dependent on these law-enforcement agencies in making criminal arrests along with the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) in ensuring successful prosecutions.”
A report by Corruption Watch has again highlighted corruption, which remained rife in both the private and public sectors, with Gauteng showing the highest number of cases at 34%.
The sixth edition of the Corruption Watch Analysis of Corruption Trends (ACT) is based on the 1 037 whistle-blower accounts that Corruption Watch received between January and June 2022.
Of the 1 037 accounts, 62% stemmed from the private sector.
The Tshwane metro was the third most implicated municipality at 21%.
Corruption Watch believed leadership was to blame.
“The appalling state of our towns, cities and millions of people living in abject poverty is owed to an incompetent leadership that has underperformed in addressing rampant corruption that is a central theme in human rights abuses,” said Melusi Ncala, senior researcher at Corruption Watch and author of the report.
“Think of the decrepit state of our public infrastructure which is poorly maintained or collapsing, the scores of people who find themselves homeless and landless, or those waiting at clinics for vital medication and treatment that is simply not available.
“These examples are just a drop in the ocean when one considers the extent to which our society, the most unequal in the world, continues to fail its people, due to corruption, incompetence, and poor leadership in government and businesses.”
A breakdown of these figures by focus area reveals that the most common corruption types in the private sector were fraud (56%) and maladministration (25%), mostly compliance-related.
Corruption in the public sector relates to abuse of authority, bribery and extortion, and procurement and employment irregularities.
An assessment of the accounts in each sector showed a slightly different distribution, as in the public sector the numbers stack up as follows: policing (11%), basic education (9%), state-owned enterprises (6%), construction (6%), and traffic and licensing (6%).
In the private sector, the picture is slightly different: legal and financial services (8%), healthcare (4%), mining (4%) and other/miscellaneous (28%) top the list.
The majority of public sector complaints relate to corruption at national government (24%), followed by local government at 23%, the provincial government at 17%.
The Tshwane metro said it had noted Corruption Watch’s latest report.
According to Tshwane metro spokesperson Lindela Mashigo, the metro had requested a detailed breakdown of the accounts from Corruption Watch.
“The report indicates that there were over 1 000 complaints submitted to Corruption Watch in total and 20% pertained to the City of Tshwane, this is approximately 200 complaints. Corruption Watch does not share their methodology of assessment with the metro in terms of evaluating the complaints.”
Mashigo said the metro had always maintained an anonymous whistleblower hotline for anyone to report corruption which can be investigated through its group audit and risk department.
“For three years, corporate communication has been communicating to employees the anti-fraud and corruption campaign, which focused mainly on tender corruption, fraud and ethical behaviour in the workplace.
“The metro maintains a financial disciplinary board, which deals with issues of financial misconduct.
“Further to that, stakeholders such as the Auditor-General’s office are critical in supporting the metro in rooting out corruption as the AG’s office identifies irregularities which the city can take forward. The metro also actively partners with the police and the Hawks in submitting evidence for criminal prosecution where cases arise.
“The metro is heavily dependent on these law-enforcement agencies in making criminal arrests along with the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) in ensuring successful prosecutions.”
Mashigo said the City also conducted sting operations of its own.
“Here, members of the public come forward and we work with them to catch corrupt officials. Recently, through a sting operation with a resident, the metro police who tried to extort them for a bribe were arrested.
“At the beginning of October, the City’s communication, marketing and events department will launch the #StopTjotjo campaign in conjunction with the TMPD to raise awareness among the officials and also to empower motorists about their rights.
“The campaign is aimed at weeding out corruption within the TMPD.”
IMPORTANT FIGURES:
Total whistle-blower accounts received since January 2022: 1 037
An average of 172 reports per month over the last six months.
The majority of them emanate in four provinces:
Gauteng – 43%
Western Cape – 9%
KwaZulu-Natal – 8%
Limpopo – 8%
Complaints located in the public sector: 62%
Complaints located in the private sector: 25%
Top implicated municipalities in the complaints:
City of Johannesburg – 36%
Ethekwini – 27%
City of Tshwane – 21%
Ekurhuleni – 16%
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