ZUMA ADMINISTRATION TOUGH ON GRAFT
The annual World Economic Forum (WEF) on Africa has successfully concluded in the city of Durban.
The WEF has described South Africa as ‘championing reforms to eradicate extreme poverty and promote shared growth nationally, regionally and globally.”
In the days and months ahead the South African government hopes to leverage our hosting this critical meeting to forge and build partnerships across the public and private sector as well as with civil society to address the many issues key to our country and the continent’s long-term development – and South African representatives used the WEF Africa platform to reiterate government’s and the governing party’s commitment to clean governance and to stamping out corruption.
Graft in both the public and private sector has long been identified as an impediment to African countries’ attaining higher levels of growth and delivering better quality services to their people.
It also leads to a trust deficit between governments and the electorate and has been proven elsewhere to be a catalyst for social unrest.
As President Jacob Zuma noted in the 2014-2019 Medium Term Strategic Framework (MTSF), corruption ‘undermines the rule of law and impedes government’ efforts to achieve its socio-economic development and service delivery objectives.’
In the week preceding the opening of WEF Africa President Zuma signed into law one of the strongest pieces of legislation since democracy to combat financial crimes – the Financial Intelligence Centre Amendment Act (FICA).
This is despite the fact that although the legislation aims to be a bulwark against money laundering, the financing of terrorist activities and other financial crimes: it nevertheless contains a number of problematic provisions that run contrary to the letter and spirit of the purpose for which the law was designed.
The categorization of ‘Politically Exposed Persons’ (PEP’s) for instance effectively deems any individual occupying a prominent public function or role as potentially susceptible to corruption: and extends this to their relatives, friends and associates. Nevertheless, the President signed off on the legislation in the best interests of the country.
It has become necessary to highlight these anti-corruption milestones at a time when negative perceptions around what this administration is doing to combat corruption, are increasingly gaining ground.
Far from ‘doing nothing’, we have comprehensive policy and legislative tools that empower the state to battle both public and private sector corruption.
These are bolstered by international anti-corruption instruments that we have ratified and acceded to such as the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Protocol against Corruption, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Protocol against Corruption and the OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Officials in International Business Transactions.
Under the current administration presided over by President Jacob Zuma, our anti-corruption architecture continues to work and yield successes.
The work being done to stamp out corruption by the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks), the Office of the Public Protector, the Special Investigative Unit (SIU), the Asset Forfeiture Unit and the Competition Commission, to name but a few, are a clear signal that this government is serious about addressing this issue, not only in the public sector, but the private sector as well.
A National Anti-Corruption Task Team was established in 2010, a year after President Zuma assumed office, and is tasked with giving effect to government’s anti-corruption agenda informed by national and international policy instruments.
It comprises representative from the National Prosecuting Authority, the Asset Forfeiture Unit, the commercial branch of the SAPS, the Hawks and the South African Revenue Service (SARS) and its work is strengthened by an Anti-Corruption Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC).
The successes of the Competition Commission in combating cartelism under this administration is well-documented; and last year President Zuma approved amendments to the Competition Act; providing for inter alia provisions that deal with ‘other practices’ that distort market competition for goods and services, as well as for holding personally liable (through fines and or imprisonment) individuals who cause firms to engage in cartel conduct.
It was President Zuma who also signed into law the Public Administration Management Act of 2014 that prohibits public servants from conducting business with the State or from having interests in private companies that do business with the State.
The track record of the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) is particularly instructive. The SIU’s primary mandate is to recover and prevent financial losses to the state caused by acts of corruption, fraud and maladministration.
Between 2010 and 2016 President Zuma signed a total of 69 SIU proclamations – 10 of these were signed in the 2016/2017 financial year alone. The President has authorized the SIU to investigate corruption, fraud and maladministration across government, including the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA), the SABC, the State Information Technology Agency (SITA) as well as hundreds of municipalities around the country.
Since 2011/2012 the SIU has recovered R 279 million for the State. In the last financial year alone it recovered R 22.5 million.
In 2009/2010 when President Zuma assumed office, the value of completed forfeitures by the National Prosecuting Authority’s Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU) was R 185 million. In 2015/2016 this amount was R 349,5 million, in addition to 236 freezing orders to the value of R 778,9 million. According to the Presidency, ‘The unit also obtained freezing orders to the value of R 238,6 million in relation to corruption – and a total of R 13 million was recovered in corruption cases involving government officials.’
Earlier this year it was announced that South Africa had improved its score in Transparency International’s annual Corruption Perceptions Index for 2016.
For 2015, despite having retained the same score on the index, we moved six places upwards in our ranking. The previous year, South Africa’s score and position on this index did not deteriorate.
This is indicative that our sound anti-corruption and ethics infrastructure isn’t just words on paper – but is tangible and has registered notable victories.
Whilst it should be acknowledged that a lot more needs to be done to address this problem, at the same time we should give credit where it is due.
Edna Molewa is Chairperson of Government’s International Cooperation, Trade and Security (ICTS) cluster, and Minister of Environmental Affairs.
This article first appeared on BusinessLive.
