Keep politics and politicians out of the civil service and corruption will stop, says United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa.
”The corruption in local government is there because councillors are emulating their leaders at national level,” he said in a statement on Tuesday.
The solution is to depoliticise the civil service completely, and then to halt the use of ”political directives” by national ministers, provincial ministers and councillors intervening unnecessarily in the decisions of officials.
Welcoming President Thabo Mbeki’s warnings on power-hungry and corrupt local councillors, delivered last week in his weekly African National Congress newsletter, Holomisa said he hopes this is not just pre-election noise-making.
”Those of us who have been batting on this wicket of clean governance, including sections of the media, have often been called names for exposing corruption. Perhaps now those opposed to corruption will no longer have their integrity and patriotism questioned.”
Holomisa said there are many examples of ministers, provincial ministers and councillors behaving as if they were accounting officers, while directors general are forced to take a backseat.
The public’s complaints regarding nepotism in the civil service remain widespread, he said. — Sapa