by Simpiwe Seti

Minister for Provincial and Local Government Sydney Mufamadi recently launched an anti-corruption strategy aimed at preventing and exposing corruption at local government level.  One of the main objectives for the strategy is to encourage a culture of integrity amongst all municipal stakeholders i.e. employees, members of the public and councillors. The Department of Provincial and Local Government’s anti-corruption strategy is in line with the Public Service Anti-Corruption Strategy but is adapted for local government issues. The initiative has reportedly been influenced by Project Consolidate’s past two years of interaction with municipalities in selected provinces and other intelligence provided by government agencies. This experience suggested that the introduction of policies and systems for preventing corruption and fraud had not been effective in tackling the problem. Whereas these policies and systems are often fairly strong at metro and district level, municipalities in rural and economically under-developed areas lack resources to create anti-corruption structures. The legislative basis for the new strategy is broad and includes the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act of 2004, the Municipal Systems Act of 2000, the Municipal Finance Management Act as well as other applicable legislation .

Local government’s vulnerability to corrupt practices stems from procedures for the procurement of contractors, the building and the allocation of RDP houses. According to the department, problems also arise because of a general lack of transparent procurement practice, nepotism in employment of staff, inadequate financial controls and abuse of municipal assets . Its main principles include building a culture that is intolerant of corruption, bringing communities, labour unions and SALGA into anti-corruption strategies and deterring or preventing unethical conduct and corruption as well as investigating and punishing corrupt acts.

Minister Mufamadi has called for a collaborative effort from all sectors of South African society and has made a particular appeal for community involvement through heightened knowledge and understanding of corruption. The aim is to allow members of the public and municipal employees to report corrupt or fraudulent activities without fear of being victimized.

The strategy focuses mainly on the municipal organisation and looks at implementation of employee and councillor codes of conduct, and improved enforcement of applicable systems, policies and procedures. It prescribes the vetting of municipal employees, both existing and prospective, to ensure that they are not predisposed to corruption. Enforcement is envisaged through a single anti-corruption hotline for local government that can be used to report unethical conduct, fraud and corruption.

Although an anti-corruption strategy by dplg is likely to be well received, there does not appear to be anything significantly new that would suggest better prospects for practical success. The emphasis is once again on training and creating awareness about anti-corruption policies and procedures. The aim seems to be to win the compliance of the key stakeholders by reasserting basic principles and rules.  Recent research into corruption indicates that, in most cases, corruption is motivated by greed and that those who engage in corrupt behaviour are quite willing to disregard policies and procedures. In fact, the corrupt frequently ensure that they are fully aware of policies and procedures in order to better subvert them.

The new strategy is also silent on the role of communities in combating corruption noting only that a communications strategy around anti-corruption and fraud prevention initiatives will be directed from municipalities to their communities. Active participation or initiative by communities that could prevent and combat corruption still requires further elaboration. According to the dplg the launch of the strategy marks the beginning of a broader anti-corruption campaign in local government that will also be driven by provincial government. The strategy will be directed by a dplg steering committee.

The Local Government Transformer, Dec 2006/Jan 2007