Government says the formation of the Special Investigating Unit last year to eradicate corruption has begun yielding results, the most recent of which being the dismissal of 70 police officers for corruption, attempted murder, armed robbery, defeating the ends of justice and assault.

The newly established unit also uncovered two syndicates associated with the robbery of foreign businesses last year, arresting suspects that included members of the South African Revenue Services, the South African Police Services and the Gauteng traffic police.

In another incident, officials from the South African Social Security Agency were arrested for defrauding the agency of a “significant” amount of money.

“These are some of the recent government achievements in its fight against crime and corruption, which is one of the State’s priorities. The departments have heeded the instruction by President Jacob Zuma to address weaknesses in procurement, management and operations systems that undermine the efficiency of government.

“An effective and efficient public service is easily undermined by poor ethics and corruption, and government will not allow such acts to thrive. To this end, government has put in place interventions to address crime and corruption,” commented Communications Minister Faith Muthambi.

This followed the introduction of the inter-Ministerial Committee on the Prevention and Combating of Corruption by Zuma earlier this year, the function of which was to oversee the work of State organs to prevent corruption and maladministration in public and private sectors.

In addition, the Public Administration Management (PAM) Bill was also introduced to address issues of corruption, the lack of professionalism in the public service sector and the lack of “common standards”.

The Bill, when signed into law, would prohibit public servants from doing business with the State.

It also introduced the Office of Standards and Compliance to monitor the implementation of national public service standards.

“The PAM Bill clearly highlights to public servants that corruption, maladministration and unethical conduct will not be tolerated,” said Muthambi.

Other government interventions included the formulation of an anticorruption strategy; the introduction of a toll-free anticorruption hotline; financial audits; training for all public servants on code of conduct, ethics and corruption and the prosecution of all offenders found guilty.

“Government is hard at work to end the cycle of corruption and calls on society and business to report any form of corruption. By reporting corruption, it equips government to deal with criminal activities,” Muthambi noted.