Publication: Pretoria News Issued: Date: 2007-01-23 Reporter: Vusumuzi ka Nzapheza

Fry the Big Fish 'to Clean Up Corruption'

 

Publication 

Pretoria News
Date

2007-01-23

Reporter

 Vusumuzi ka Nzapheza

Web Link

www.pretorianews.co.za

 

South Africa will have to fry bigger fish than fraudster Tony Yengeni if it is serious about fighting corruption, says Hennie van Vuuren of the Institute for Security Studies (ISS).

The institute has listed seven areas of governance vulnerable to corruption and emerging scandal this year.

The arms deal tops the list as Britain's serious fraud office investigates the payment by British Aerospace of R1 billion in commissions to secure contracts in South Africa's arms deal.

"The arms deal remains a defining corruption drama in a democratic South Africa," Van Vuuren said. "This is likely to be a year of another trial for (former deputy president) Jacob Zuma, with indications that others will also be implicated."

Corruption charges against Zuma, the ANC's deputy president and a presidential hopeful, were struck off the roll last year but may be brought again as the National Prosecuting Authority has continued its investigation.

After the arms industry, construction was one of the most corrupt sectors in the world, Van Vuuren said. The provision of infrastructure in South Africa for the 2010 World Cup might present opportunities for rogue elements wanting a piece of the action. He said there was enormous pressure to spend the budget under the tight deadlines.

"There is no doubt that contractors (big and small) are licking their lips at what the World Cup holds in store: a massive budget (R15 billion) that may already be moving upwards."

The third area vulnerable to corruption was the provision of basic services, a challenge for the government that offered elements in the political and economic elite the opportunity to steal from the poor, Van Vuuren said.

Van Vuuren sees the absence of regulations requiring the disclosure of private donations to political parties as a murky area that can be expected to give rise to bigger scandals than the recent Oilgate affair.

He also cited the example of Chancellor House, said by the Mail & Guardian to be a front company set up by the ANC to seek profit on its behalf. It reportedly has interests in mining, engineering, logistics and IT.

White-collar crime, which costs the economy more than R50 billion a year, and the ghost of slain mining magnate Brett Kebble, were set to continue to trouble the country this year, Van Vuuren said.

Parliament had shown it was not immune to corruption and there could be a "final few sparks" before Travelgate petered out.

Van Vuuren, who compiled the Apartheid Grand Corruption Report for the National Anti-Corruption Forum, also sees the possibility of another probe into the Information Scandal of the 1970s and the link with the Swiss bank accounts alleged to have been held by the late former president Nico Diederichs.

With acknowledgements to Vusumuzi ka Nzapheza and Pretoria News.