Bronwen Roberts
A special session of the Eastern Cape legislature was convened this week to look at ongoing charges of corruption and maladministration.
Whenever the Eastern Cape government faces another scandal involving internal corruption, officials emphasise it is because of their own efforts that corruption is being exposed. The implication is that the government is working hard to clean its slate.
While this may well be true, it is hardly heartening for the people of the province who are increasingly frustrated with tales of primary school children going hungry or pictures of destitute pensioners shuffling through unnecessary queues.
Eastern Cape National Party leader Dr Tertius Delport said he would use the latest occasion to express extreme concern at mismanagement and corruption in the province.
Delport said he did not believe the present government at all levels was taking the situation in hand.
The outspoken Democratic Party leader in the province, Eddie Trent, agreed. In a statement, he said: “Ever since we have come to Bisho, it has been pointed out that our province inherited a bloated, inefficient and corrupt civil service. In the past 26 months, however, the government has been working on one organogram after another.
“The emphasis on the appointment of civil servants has been based on affirmative action, rather than experience and efficiency. After 26 months and a lot of talk about right-sizing, we are yet to be told what the right size of our civil service should be, let alone how many people are currently working for us.
“We are now told that in an attempt to right-size the civil service, all civil servants are going to be, or have been, offered the option of severance packages. This misguided policy will add to a further exodus of experienced and competent people.”
Trent added that with such uncertainty in the civil service, “it will be impossible to contain the ongoing fraud, corruption and maladministration”.
He said the Commercial Branch of the South African Police Service was dealing with 412 cases of government corruption related to fraud, of which 105 were reported before April 1994 and 307 thereafter. Of the 412 cases, 355 were still under investigation.
The Heath Commission into government irregularities was investigating 1 014 cases and was understaffed.