Govt should do more than name and shame the already convicted

Justice Minister, Jeff Radebe’s announcement that government will name and shame convicted corrupt officials should go a step further to expose officials who have been charged with corruption but resign before disciplinary action, only to be rehired in another department or province.

“Revealing the names of the convicted for corruption is a step in the right direction but not enough. First, he should increase the number of convictions which remains too low compared to the reported incidents of corruption,” said executive director, David Lewis. 

Lewis added that the Minister should also publish the names of officials who are charged with corruption but resign during the course of a disciplinary hearing.  “There are many who are not charged in court but subjected to disciplinary proceedings over which a veil of secrecy is thrown and often takes years to finalise while they are suspended on full pay.”

This behaviour is particularly common in local government where CW’s data from last year reveals a high rate of corruption. Out of the more than 1200 cases reported to CW last year, 22% were about corruption at local government levels. 

Based on the data collected in 2012, Corruption Watch will be focusing its work this year on exposing corruption in small towns. This aligns with the Auditor General (AG), Terence Nombembe’s expressed concerns over mismanagement and abuse of public funds in local government. The AG’s report only 18% of South Africa’s 278 municipalities got clean results from 2012 local government audit.

“We have found that schools are another place where there is rampant corruption. We will be combining the municipal focus with investigations into school corruption. We hope that the government’s name and shame strategy will support our efforts to expose those found to be abusing school funds,” said Lewis.

For more information

David Lewis  – 082 576 3748
Bongi Mlangeni – 076 862 9086

View the press release as a PDF here.