Ramaphosa warns against corrupt officials taking advantage of COVID-19

CAPE TOWN — President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday warned that corrupt officials taking advantage of the COVID-19 for personal benefit would be dealt with “decisively and harshly”.

In a strongly worded weekly address, Ramaphosa decried corruption during a national disaster as “a particularly heinous crime”. He was speaking following corruption allegations over COVID-19 personal protective equipment (PPE) tenders involving a number of individuals related to the ruling African National Congress (ANC), including presidential spokesperson Khusela Diko, Gauteng provincial health official Bandile Masuku and even Ramaphosa’s son Andile.

Some of South Africa’s most prominent civil society organisations such as the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation and Corruption Watch, Freedom Under Law and the South African Communist Party have expressed anger and disappointment over reports of widespread corruption involving funds meant to assist with the COVID-19 pandemic. Ramaphosa likened those who attempt to profit from a disaster that is claiming the lives of South Africans everyday to “a pack of hyenas circling a wounded prey.”

“As we find ourselves in the grip of the greatest health emergency our country has faced in over a century, we are witnessing theft by individuals and companies with no conscience,” the President said.

South Africans, he said, have heard stories of alleged corruption in the procurement and deployment of PPE to fight COVID-19, of companies hiking the prices of essential items during the lockdown and of the illegal diversion of State resources meant for the vulnerable and destitute. These stories have caused outrage among South Africans, have opened up the wounds of the State capture era, where senior figures in society seemed to get away with corruption on a grand scale, he said.

Ramaphosa reiterated that corruption was nevertheless a far broader problem in South African and steps should be taken right now, not only to safeguard COVID-19 funds, but also to protect all public funds and all institutions from corruption now and into the future.

“It requires a new consciousness and new sense of accountability,” he said. The battle against, and victory over, corruption are vital if public servants and political office-bearers truly care about the public whose interests they claim to represent, said Ramaphosa.