Mbeki acknowledges corruption: now fix it - media statement
issued by UDM President (19 October 2005)We hope this isn’t just pre-election noise-making or subtle attacks on his internal ANC opponents. Those of us who have been batting on this wicket of clean governance, including sections of the media, have often been called names for exposing corruption. Perhaps now those opposed to corruption will no longer have their integrity and patriotism questioned.
During the State of the Nation debate earlier this year I said to President Mbeki in Parliament that:
“Some politicians make a habit of using “political directives” where the decision should actually be made by the administrators. This is a danger to the morale of the civil service that may also encourage corruption. There are a lot of examples of Ministers, MECs or Councillors that behave like they are the Accounting Officers, whilst people employed to do critical jobs like Directors General are forced to take a backseat… People often hear: “If you want that job or contract, go and speak to Minister, or Councillor So-and-so.”...
At times these “political directives” have recommended people for certain jobs who are not competent for those positions. Patronage inevitably comes at the cost of service delivery. The public’s complaints regarding nepotism in the civil service remains widespread.
What we are observing currently, especially at Local Government level but also at Provincial Government level, is infighting amongst Councillors, over the control of resources, because all of a sudden these self-appointed Accounting Officers have decided that they can take financial decisions without the recommendation of Town Managers or Departmental Heads.”
The corruption in Local Government is there because Councillors are emulating their leaders at national level. The solution to this is to firstly depoliticise the civil service completely, and secondly to halt the use of “political directives” by Ministers and MECs and Councillors intervening unnecessarily in the decisions of officials.