Corruption in the spotlight
2006-02-27 08:46
Johannesburg - Large-scale corruption in municipalities, notorious for their low-quality service to the poor masses, has emerged as a key concern for South Africa's ruling party ahead of local elections on Wednesday.
Corruption is tainting the image of the African National Congress (ANC), which swept to power in the first multi-racial elections in 1994, and its huge electorate has become impatient with officials interested only in enriching themselves.
President Thabo Mbeki has recognised the urgent need to deal with corrupt officials, recently acknowledging that "the ranks of our movement are being corrupted by a self-seeking spirit."
The president, who last year fired his former deputy Jacob Zuma in a massive corruption scandal, warned that graft would "guarantee the destruction of the ANC".
"What we do in this regard will define whether our organisation, the ANC... degenerates into an ignoble blood-sucking and corrupt parasite," Mbeki wrote in a party newsletter in October.
More than 580 cases of financial misconduct amounting to some R20m were reported in 2004 from all levels of government but the local administrations appear more vulnerable to graft, according to the Public Service Commission, a body that monitors spending by departments.
"Local government is considered to be particularly vulnerable to corruption given both the size of its operations, the size of its budget allocation, and the role that councils play in the tendering process," said researcher Hennie van Vuuren in an independent report on corruption published last year.
Financial misconduct
Some 76% of the 582 employees charged with financial misconduct were found guilty either in court or during internal disciplinary hearings, according to the Public Commission.
About half were dismissed while the others received mainly written warnings.
"Despite the government's efforts to root out corruption within the public service, the picture remains discouraging," said the commission.
"There is a growing public dissatisfaction with corruption at local level, citizens have taken to the streets," said Van Vuuren whose report was commissioned by corruption watchdog Transparency International.
Corrupt provincial and municipal administrations translate into the poor masses failing to receive basic services such as proper sanitation and housing, he said.
While the ANC has assured its mainly poor black electorate that this will change, the main opposition Democratic Alliance is using corruption as a key campaign plank to discredit the government.
A "corruption fact sheet" compiled by the DA contains more than 30 examples of graft in municipalities in the past five years, including reports of officials spending state money on luxurious holidays and inflated salaries.
In the richest province of Gauteng, council officials received a kickback of R1m August 2004 for selling municipal property to a businessman, and also scrapping several million rand in owed taxes on the land.
In eastern KwaZulu-Natal, a municipal manager was paid more than R650 000 for awarding a development contract to his friend in 2002.
Consultants squandered money
A R16m sanitation project in Nelspruit produced only 40 out of 8 500 promised toilets after consultants squandered the money, according to the DA corruption file.
The ANC says newly elected municipal councillors will take a public oath promising to "fight corruption in any guise or form".
While the ANC is certain to win the local elections, it cannot ignore a growing voice of discontent from its grassroots supporters in a country where more than half of the 46-million population lives below the breadline and unemployment hovers officially at 26%.