Zuma steps up ‘war on corruption’

President Jacob Zuma has established agencies to probe procurement processes and to fast-track high-priority and high-profile corruption cases. The Multi-Agency Working Group and the Anti-Corruption Task Team would comprise the heads of the National Treasury, the Hawks, the Special Investigating Unit, the National Director of Public Prosecutions and representatives of other institutions like the Financial Intelligence Centre, the National Prosecuting Agency’s Special Commercial Crime Unit, the Asset Forfeiture Unit and Sars.

Addressing editors, and foreign and political journalists in Pretoria on Tuesday, Zuma commended the media and law enforcement agencies for the strides made by his government’s corruption crackdown. He said R330 million of taxpayers’ money has been recovered from corrupt government officials between September 2004 and now. Thanks to the inception of the National Anti-Corruption Hotline, Zuma said, 17 110 corruption cases had been reported. The cases resulted in 2 638 officials being found guilty of misconduct charges related to corruption. At least 1 728 of the culprits were nabbed in provinces, with another 910 at national level. Zuma said 491 officials had been suspended and 1 600 dismissed. He added that 256 officials had been fined three months’ salary, 31 demoted, 541 given final written warnings and 210 prosecuted.

“To promote co-ordination, we have also established the Multi-Agency Working Group to investigate supply chain management practices and also the Anti-Corruption Task Team within the justice, crime prevention and security cluster, whose mandate is to fast-track high-priority and high-profile corruption cases,” Zuma said. Zuma’s speech came as the media, Public Protector Thuli Madonsela and Auditor-General Terence Nombembe battle to lay their hands on the report into the R200m upgrade to his Nkandla home. The expenditure has been marred by allegations of abuse of public funds, tender irregularities, corruption and nepotism. Ironically, the Zuma administration has since classified the report, said to be damning, as “top secret”.

The move has been widely viewed as undermining Zuma’s commitment to transparency, accountability and the fight against corruption. Shifting his focus to South Africa’s foreign policy, Zuma - who was on his way to the G20 meeting in Russia - reaffirmed the country’s commitment to multilateralism on the Syrian and Egyptian crises. Buoyed by a special resolution on Syria taken by the tripartite alliance’s summit at the weekend, Zuma hinted that he would not support President Barack Obama’s plan to attack Syria. “We will continue to promote multilateral solutions to international security challenges and to uphold the supremacy of the United Nations Security Council in dealing with global peace and security issues,” Zuma insisted.

ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe said on Sunday that delegates were opposed to a possible US unilateral military assault on Syria. He said while the summit condemned the use of chemical weapons, it equally condemned military intervention that might worsen the situation. “The summit called on the US Congress to vote against the use of military force in Syria. Any military intervention without the UN would be a violation of international law,” Mantashe said. Zuma added that the G20 summit was expected to discuss measures to create jobs and ensure sustainable and balanced global growth.