Pretoria - Minister for Public Service and Administration, Ayanda Dlodlo, called public servants and citizens in general to raise their voices and speak out against all forms of corruption in the country.
Dlodlo was delivering the keynote address as the world commemorated International Anti-Corruption Day, under the theme: “Your right, your role: Say no to corruption”.
The International Anti-Corruption Day is commemorated annually on December 9 in recognition of the United Nations Convention against Corruption which was signed in Mexico in 2003. South Africa is one of the signatories to the Convention and ratified it in 2004.
Dlodlo said this day provided an opportunity for political leaders, governments, business, civil society and ordinary South Africans, in particular the youth, to join forces against corruption.
She told the public and representatives from the Public Service Commission in partnership with the United Nations in South Africa, represented by the Office on Drugs and Crime and the United Nations Development Programme, and the University of South Africa virtually, that empirical evidence showed that corruption hurt everyone, but the poor disproportionately, and the youth.
"Our commitment to fight corruption is desperately needed.
"It undermines democracy and the rule of law. It leads to violations of human rights, distorts markets, erodes the quality of life, and allows organised crime, terrorism and other threats to human security to flourish.
"In the South African context, Section 3 of the prevention and combating of corruption activities, 2 of 2004, defines corruption among others as the abuse of office for personal gain.
"As a country we successfully fought apartheid, now it is the time to stand together and fight corruption; as this is probably one of the most defining struggles of our time. It is a priority fight precisely because there is far too much at stake while both developing and developed countries are battling this scourge," said Dlodlo.
She said when people refuse to pay a police officer or a government department official a bribe, that form of action spoke a great deal about those people’s stance against corruption. This was because it was important to put citizens at the centre of the fight against corruption.
She said more still needed to be done but it was encouraging to see the wheel against corruption turning, and some public servants recently being arrested for doing business with organs of the state.
According to Dlodlo's department, all business entities that have an intention to render services to the government are compelled to register on the Central Supplier Database.
The department has access to such information for monitoring compliance with the above regulations through matching the information on the Central Supplier Database with information on the Personnel Salary System.
This enabled flagging of those individuals in the employ of the state registered on the Central Supplier Database, demonstrating an intention to do business with the state, or actively doing business with the state.
Pretoria News