Makhura on aggressive drive to clean house
Gauteng Premier David Makhura intends to nip corruption in the bud using a civil society-led anticorruption advisory committee to help preempt instances of graft.
These were Makhura’s views during his third political report address in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature yesterday.
He said the aim of appointing the integrity promotion and anticorruption advisory committee was to strengthen his government’s efforts in the fight against corruption.
The committee would be led by civil society members and chaired by a retired judge.
The premier said more details about the composition of the committee’s structure and guidelines for its work would be announced during his State of the Province address next year.
He said the committee would not be a unit, but consist of volunteers and working people with a background in ethics and integrity at an institutional level.
The committee would be expected to promote clean governance and ensure ethical leadership at every level of the administration. But Makhura warned the committee would not be a prosecutorial body, saying it would, instead, help build a corruption-free system by pinpointing potential areas of graft and recommend appropriate action to be taken.
“The aim is to prevent, rather than fight this scourge,” Makhura said. “We tend to spend a lot of time and money on fighting corruption, not preventing it.”
Makhura said his government had instituted disciplinary measure against 125 officials over financial misconduct and two department heads had been dismissed.