Public servants in new premier’s sights
CORRUPT KwaZulu-Natal civil servants beware. That was the message from Premier Willies Mchunu yesterday as he read the riot act to any who might divert state resources destined for the poor, warning they would face “severe consequences”.
He was reacting to the report by the Hawks that over the past six years more than 31 public servants had stolen more than R741 million from state coffers.
“The figure was presented before Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts on Wednesday by the head of the Hawks Lieutenant General (Berning) Ntlemeza,” the premier said, addressing a provincial executive council lekgotla in Durban.
“It is for these reasons that we are going to be ruthless in our fight against fraud and corruption.”
He said the provincial government had an obligation to ensure that people were able to resist corrupt officials who aimed to extract bribes for services they were paid to render.
“Critically, as elected representatives of our people, we must be alive to the fact that the poor are most vulnerable to corruption both in terms of not being educated enough to demand what rightfully belongs to them and for being easy targets for intimidation, extortion and bribery.
“Exploitation and abusing illiterate, poor and desperate members of our society will be the betrayal of the spirit of the father of this democratic government, our revered former president Nelson Mandela.”
Speaking to the media afterwards, he said the lekgotla had also resolved that unlike in past, public servants should be penalised for poor performance.
They should also be required to work full working-hour days, taking only their necessary breaks.
“We must be in a position where we are capable of serving society and the electorate maximally.”
Turning to problems on the education front – particularly the clashes and destruction at the University of KwaZuluNatal – the premier said he would convene a meeting with heads of tertiary institutions to look into its root causes and share concerns and views.
He said it was a concern that at tertiary institutions, blacks who studied PhDs and doctorates were generally from other countries.
However, Mchunu denounced the destruction of property in protests. “We cannot say they must not protest, but they must follow the law.”
He saw no logic in destroying university property, especially when it was to demand attending of the very institution they were destroying.
He singled out youth unemployment as the “single biggest threat to social stability”.
“We must do everything possible to accelerate economic transformation through revitalisation of townships and rural enterprises, ensuring that economic opportunities are shared among our people.”
Resolutions passed at the lekgotla were not yet concluded and needed to be passed as full resolutions by the provincial cabinet, he added.