In the wake of the revelations of multi-billion-rand theft by Brett Kebble, civil society has vowed to flex its muscles over the lack of accountability, as well as abuse, by those that hold "entrusted power", particularly corporate graft.

A group of non-governmental bodies with an anti-corruption mandate will attempt to uncover the failings of corporate governance at this week's closed National Anti-Corruption Forum with the government and business.

At the meeting on Thursday, a much anticipated report on the scope of apartheid-era corruption is also expected to be released.

This week, the Civil Society Network Against Corruption (CSNAC) and Transparency South Africa (T-SA) said, after a meeting to formulate a co-ordinated response to "grand corporate corruption", that they intended to embark on a process to find out how the recent scandals around Kebble's missing billions, and the alleged non-declaration of conflicts of interest by public officials and representatives, including judges, could have been allowed to happen.

It has brought to the surface questions about an "unholy alliance" between the private sector and the government as suspicions linger over who in politics benefited from loans and gifts from Kebble. The relationship between corporations and the public sector and civil society was described as "nefarious" at the meeting, which was also attended by the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) and the South African NGO Coalition (Sangoco).

Alison Tilley, the CSNAC convener, said they would request a forum where the issues could be discussed between civil society and those bodies set up to hold those with "entrusted power" accountable, including the receiver of revenue and the stock exchange.

"The Kebble saga is only the latest in the trail of corporate scandals involving Masterbond, Leisurenet and MacMed," the meeting found, asking why such scandals continued to happen at the expense of shareholders and the public.

"Civil society commits itself to monitoring the unfolding of this case, and calls for those who were involved to speak out."

Tilley was also concerned that there was little progress in terms of calls for legislation on whistle-blowing to be strengthened to prevent such scandals, while the meeting expressed disappointment with parliament's response to the auditor-general's analysis of the scope of non-declaration of senior MP's financial interests.

The extent of big corporations' role as corrupters, such as Jacob Zuma's alleged bribe to an arms deal beneficiary and Kebble's alleged payments to ANC Youth League members, was also discussed. A debate around such issues was in line with a worldwide change of discourse to not only hold governments accountable for corrupt activities, but also the payers of bribes, said Hassen Lorgat, the head of T-SA and Sangoco.

Lorgat said that in the wake of the Enron scandal in the US there has been worldwide pressure on auditing bodies to hold corporations accountable.

"These guys are supposed to be the new policemen and women and we must ask whether they have delivered," Lorgat said. "My question to the receiver of revenue is also why has it taken so long to deal with the issue of tax evasion [in the case of Kebble] when … it looks like poorer people are always harassed. Maybe there should be a truth commission on private and public sector corruption. We accept that corruption is inter-generational and we need a collective effort to counter it."

He stressed that a recent T-SA integrity study showed that private sector fraud amounted to about R50 billion annually, while big business seemed to be falling behind on a growth and development summit pledge to invest 5 percent in job creation.

"So this is another level in which they are failing to create a just society, but instead perpetuate a nefarious relationship with the public. For us it is about holding accountable those who use entrusted power for private gain and in our second decade of democracy this power means not just government, but everyone with power, the church guy who rapes a parishioner, MPs who abuse travel vouchers, but most importantly those with corporate power.

"Our assessment is that the private sector comes out worse than the government [in corruption studies], that there is a psychology that the private sector can behave without accountability."

In addition to incentives for whistleblowing, Lorgat suggested intensified shareholder activism - where civil society members buy small shares to enable them to influence shareholder meetings.

With acknowledgement to Christelle Terreblanche and The Sunday Independent.