Publication	Sunday Argus
Date	2006-02-05
Reporter	Linda Daniels
Web Link	www.capeargus.co.za

ANC leaders have shot down criticism by opposition parties that President Thabo Mbeki did not adequately deal with the issue of corruption in government during his State of the Nation address.

Mbeki delivered his annual speech in the national assembly on Friday which officially marked the opening of parliament.

UDM leader Bantu Holomisa took issue with parliament's invitation to former deputy president Jacob Zuma who attended the occasion as a guest of honour.

Zuma, facing corruption charges, is due in court on Monday next week to face a rape charge. He sat alongside another invited guest of honour, former state president FW de Klerk, and his wife, Elita, in the national assembly.

Holomisa said the invitation to Zuma had not sent out a strong signal against corruption.

In reaction to the president's speech he said: "The entire state of the nation exercise has been tainted by what it has said and not said about corruption.

The speech made a brief reference to corruption, little more than a platitude, whereas the decision to invite a well-known suspect of corruption as an honoured guest speaks loudly in contradiction of government's much vaunted fight against corruption."

Holomisa said that he expected the president to "tackle these issues head-on".

While Mbeki did mention the anti-fraud strategy which guarded against officials pocketing social grants, DA leader Tony Leon said "until we really crack down on corruption - including at parliamentary level (where we have the) Travelgate scandal which got not a word of attention from the president" the country would not reach "many of the laudable, lofty goals that the president set for the nation".

ACDP leader Kenneth Meshoe commented that while the president had said the government would fight corruption, "they redeploy corrupt members and they don't remove them from office".

Meshoe said: "The president should also have said something about the deputy president's trip to the United Arab Emirates. Corruption must also be fought in the presidency."

The UIF echoed these sentiments.

Accusing the opposition of clutching at straws, ANC spokesman Smuts Ngonyama said the president had in fact spoken about corruption.

"If you go through the manifesto of the ANC and the oath, it is there, written in black-and-white. It's the ANC that brought this matter to be part and parcel of the priority of the country. *1

"It is the ANC that has faced its own members around corruption and even charged them - some of them have been chased out of parliament.

The ANC deputy secretary-general Sankie Mthembi-Mahanyele said: "We are doing something *2 about corruption. We've got cases quoted where action has been taken. When we worked on the lists and selected our cadres as public representatives we made sure that they are people who understand that we don't tolerate corruption."

Mthembi-Mahanyele said corruption was a global phenomenon *3 and that the law had to take its course against corrupt individuals.

---

*1  Imbongolo manure - it's the fishers of corrupt men that initiated the public outcry against government corruption and subsequent action, somewhat belated and somewhat reluctant in certain cases, by the National Prosecuting Authority.

There has been little, if any, action from the other constitutional watchdogs such as SAPS, the Auditor-General or the public Protector to take action against government corruption.

Mbeki previously was greatly affronted by the fishers. Now he makes as if the good fight is his and his party's; as always, the great opportunist.

There would be little institutionalised corruption in this country if there was a true will from the topmost echelons to out it.

*2  Wasting oxygen.

*3  Mainly in France and the countries with which it does defence business.