FROM THE DESK OF THE PRESIDENT
Monday, 05 December 2022
THE FIGHT TO RECOVER ILL-GOTTEN GAINS IS GATHERING STEAM
The announcement by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) last week that it had reached a settlement with an international company implicated in corruption at Eskom is a huge development in our effort to hold those responsible for state capture to account.
The NPA Investigating Directorate finalised a landmark agreement with Swiss engineering company ABB Ltd to pay R2.5 billion in punitive reparations to South Africa. This in connection with bribes allegedly paid to obtain contracts with Eskom between 2014 and 2017.
This amount, which will be paid into the Criminal Asset Recovery Account, is in addition to R1.6 billion that ABB paid Eskom in 2020 to settle an investigation into allegedly criminal conduct involving contracts at the Kusile power station. Importantly, the current settlement does not indemnify the company or its staff from prosecution.
For the last five years, we have been working hard to end the looting of resources meant for the benefit of South Africa’s people, to prosecute those responsible and recover stolen funds.
When we embarked on this journey, we understood that the results would not be felt overnight.
We first had to rebuild state institutions that had been deliberately weakened, emptied of expertise and rendered incapable of preventing capture by criminal elements. We had to strengthen law enforcement institutions and shield them from outside interference.
One of the most important steps we took was to establish, in 2019, the Investigating Directorate in the NPA to deal with cases emanating from the state capture commission and other corruption-related offences. We recently announced plans to make the Investigating Directorate a permanent structure.
We are now seeing the results of this work. The fight against state capture and corruption is gaining momentum.
In the last few months, several cases have been brought to court, with former executives of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) like Eskom and Transnet charged alongside business people for allegedly colluding to steal public funds.
In addition to the arrests of those implicated in wrongdoing and bringing the cases to court, progress is being made in other areas as well where there has been malfeasance.
For example, work is continuing at Eskom to recover money from irregular and corrupt contracts, recover overpayments and bill contractors for project over-runs.
The Special Investigating Unit continues with its investigations into corruption and mismanagement at state institutions and SOEs, with its Special Tribunal empowered to recover stolen funds.
The South African Revenue Service continues to fight corruption through lifestyle audits and other legislative tools. It is piloting a new unexplained wealth initiative to recover assets suspected of having been acquired illegally or through the proceeds of crime.
The NPA, through the Investigating Directorate, the Asset Forfeiture Unit and other structures, is successfully using preservation orders, asset forfeiture and other tools to tighten the noose around those involved in corrupt activities.
Many of those involved in state capture and their enablers in the private sector saw nothing wrong with diverting public funds to private pockets. At the height of the state capture era, unscrupulous politicians repurposed state institutions for private enrichment and to cover their tracks.
Today we have law enforcement authorities and a prosecuting authority devoted to investigating and prosecuting without fear or favour. We have state institutions committed to fulfilling their respective mandates regardless of the status or influence of any individual or a company.
As a society, we need to give these agencies and the people working in them our full support and encouragement. We need to guard against any efforts to weaken these institutions or undermine their resolve.
Working together, we have, within a relatively short space of time, rebuilt the supporting architecture to investigate and prosecute serious corruption and other crimes.
I have always said that the fight against corruption will not be won easily or quickly, given how many years it took for patronage and graft to become entrenched.
Now that we see that progress is being made, we must do everything we can to ensure that this work continues unhindered and that none of the gains we have made are reversed.
With best regards,
FROM THE DESK OF THE PRESIDENT
Fellow South Africans,
In my address to the second Presidential Summit on Gender-based Violence and Femicide at the beginning of this month, I said that we are a nation at war with itself.
This is borne out by the crime statistics for the last quarter, which were released last week, just ahead of the start of the annual 16 Days of Activism for No Violence against Women and Children.
Between July and September this year, 989 women were murdered, 1,277 were victims of attempted murder and more than 13,000 were victims of serious assault. In just these three months, more than 10,000 rape cases were opened with the South African Police Service (SAPS).
Not even children, our most vulnerable citizens and most deserving of our care and protection, were spared. In the six months to September 2022, over 500 children were killed.
We are in the grip of terrible crimes in which offenders are known to the victims. Women and children are being violated not only by strangers but by people who are known to them – by their fathers, boyfriends and husbands, by colleagues, teachers and even classmates.
However, as a society, we are not powerless to stop these crimes. We can stop gender-based violence.
Over the last few years, there has been a growing mobilisation of all sectors of society to stop the abuse of women and children. There have been some areas of progress.
The latest crime statistics show some of the successes of the criminal justice system in bringing perpetrators to book. In the reporting period, the SAPS Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences units arrested over 4,000 alleged perpetrators of gender-based violence and 410 alleged rapists were traced and arrested.
More than 17,000 trial-ready GBV cases were processed by teams of the SAPS and the National Prosecuting Authority. The courts are also handing down heavier sentences to perpetrators.
While we should be encouraged that many of the perpetrators are not being allowed to get away with their crimes, our foremost task is to prevent men and boys from becoming abusers in the first place.
Men are the perpetrators of gender-based violence and it is therefore men that need to change. It is men – as husbands and partners, as fathers, colleagues, peers and classmates – who need to consider their own attitudes towards women and girls.
To give meaning to 16 Days of Activism we now need to engage the men of South Africa in a dialogue about their responsibility towards women and toxic masculinity. All of society should be mobilised to organise these men’s dialogues.
The government, non-governmental organisations and the private sector should be encouraged to support such dialogues in every workplace, place of worship, school, college and university, and in every community. Every day various entities devote resources to public engagements, conferences and seminars on various pressing social, economic and political issues of the day. These are forums where this engagement should happen.
Eradicating gender-based violence is no less urgent or important. These crimes affect every aspect of our society, including health and well-being, safety and security, and economic growth and productivity.
In these dialogues, we need to examine our understanding of sexual consent. We must challenge the myth that rape is only considered rape if it involves a stranger, or if the victim responded by screaming for help, fighting back or reporting the matter immediately to the police.
By bringing together men of all races, classes and generations to speak frankly about their understanding of masculinity, we can show how some assumptions and practices that many people consider ‘normal’ are harmful to women and children.
We must change beliefs that men are strong and women are weak, that men have to be in charge, or that men can do as they please with women. Men need to understand that they can and should express their pain and frustrations without inflicting harm on others.
As President, I stand ready to participate in men’s dialogues. I call on Ministers, Premiers, religious, political and community leaders, sports people, artists, celebrities and business people to do the same.
The men of South Africa owe it to the women and children of this country to take up the struggle against gender-based violence.
These men’s dialogues can be platforms for men to challenge each other to become better men, more responsible, more understanding and more caring.
With best regards,
FROM THE DESK OF THE PRESIDENT
TOWARDS A MORE PROFESSIONAL AND CAPABLE PUBLIC SERVICE
Fellow South Africans,
One of the bitter lessons we take from the state capture era is how fragile our public sector can be and how we need to strengthen it.
The report of the State Capture Commission lays bare how organs of state were systematically weakened by undue political and corporate interference. It further details instances where individuals without the necessary competence and experience were appointed to strategic positions so that they could be manipulated by private interests.
As we recover from state capture, we must ensure there are consequences for the perpetrators of state capture. We also need to make sure that public institutions can never be weakened in this way again.
This means we need to build a public service that is professional, ethical and driven by merit.
Building such a public service is one of the main aims of the National Framework towards Professionalisation of the Public Sector, which was made public last week. The finalisation of the Framework, which will be applied across all spheres of the public sector, fulfils a commitment I made in the State of the Nation Address in February this year as part of the work to build a more capable state.
The Framework lays down, among other things, clear requirements for recruitment and selection processes, mandatory induction for new public servants and performance management. It prioritises continuous learning so that the skills and capabilities of public servants are always improving.
This is to ensure that only qualified and competent individuals are appointed to the ranks of the public service. Those people who are unfit or unwilling to serve the public should make way for those who are dedicated and capable.
We will be introducing competency assessments as part of new requirements for entry into the public service. Those seeking appointment or promotion will need to complete compulsory courses with the National School of Government (NSG); those who are newly appointed will not be allowed to assume duty until they have successfully completed induction programmes. Long-serving public servants will also have to undergo regular refresher training.
The Framework will help to reduce the undue pressure placed on Directors-General and CEOs of public entities to carry out unlawful instructions, break public procurement rules or favour certain private sector interests, as happened during the state capture era. The Framework will also contribute to greater stability in the senior leadership of the public service.
For example, new contracts of Directors-General and Provincial Heads of Departments will immediately be guaranteed for five years, subject to meeting the requirements for the position and regular performance reviews. Legislative and regulatory amendments are planned to increase their tenure to 10 years to stabilise administration.
Under the new Framework, staff appointed into political offices, including ministerial advisers, must complete a pre-entry course for middle and senior management with the NSG, as well as competency and integrity assessments within 90 days of their appointment.
The implementation of the Framework will further strengthen the management of state-owned entities, prioritising merit in the appointment of board members. We have accepted several of the recommendations of the State Capture Commission in this regard, including that independent panels with appropriate technical expertise be constituted to recommend suitable candidates for boards.
Included in the recommendations of the Framework is that newly appointed board members must receive specialised NSG-run induction training for boards of SOEs, and for further professional development and registration through relevant statutory councils.
The National Framework towards Professionalisation of the Public Sector is one of the most significant developments in public service reform since the advent of democracy.
We know that just as the capacity of the public sector has deteriorated over many years, correcting the situation will also take time. This is the first critical step.
It gives renewed momentum to the drive that commenced with the start of this administration to build a public sector that is ethical, professional and efficient.
This Framework should be welcomed by the country’s public servants as an important tool for their progression as they work on the frontline to deliver on the promise of a better life for every South African.
With best regards,
President Cyril Ramaphosa
FROM THE DESK OF THE PRESIDENT
Monday, 14 November 2022
BROAD-BASED BLACK ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT IS HERE TO STAY
With the advent of democracy in 1994, a key priority of the new government was to transform the economy so that everyone could benefit from the country’s wealth.
As a society, we understood that economic transformation could not simply be left to the markets, but would need special interventions to make it happen.
That is why the Bill of Rights in our Constitution says that to promote the achievement of equality, legislative and other measures may be taken to advance people who had been disadvantaged by unfair discrimination.
The same Constitution provides for both value-for-money and empowerment in public procurement.
It says that when public bodies contract for goods and services, they must do so in a manner that is fair, equitable, transparent, competitive and cost-effective. It also says the state must implement a preferential procurement policy that advances people who have been disadvantaged by unfair discrimination. In South Africa, this refers to black people, women and persons with disabilities.
It is in this context that the new Preferential Procurement Regulations published by the National Treasury last week need to be understood. Government remains wholly committed to transformation and empowerment as envisioned in the Constitution.
Some people, for their own reasons, have mischaracterised the purpose and effect of the new regulations. Some commentary has even claimed that this government is back-tracking on its commitment to broad-based black economic empowerment.
This claim is far from the truth.
The new regulations fulfil an order of the Constitutional Court last year declaring that the preferential procurement regulations from 2017 are illegal, and requiring that the Minister of Finance replace them within 12 months.
Some of the commentators on this matter neglect to mention that the crux of the judgment is the scope of Ministerial powers to make preferential procurement regulations.
These regulations now fully comply with Section 217 of the Constitution in that they empower organs of state to develop and implement preferential procurement policies when contracting for goods and services.
These regulations are an interim measure pending the enactment of the Public Procurement Bill, which the National Treasury will soon submit to Cabinet and Parliament. The Public Procurement Bill will maximise both value-for-money and preferential procurement objectives to enable the delivery of services and transformation.
The new regulations have no effect on the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act, as all organs of state must fully comply with this Act when developing their procurement policies. This Act remains in force as one of the most transformative pieces of legislation to come out of democratic South Africa.
Government’s policy framework has not changed with the introduction of these regulations, nor has our commitment to service delivery and black economic empowerment.
Empowerment criteria will still be applied in government contracting and organs of state must comply with the BBBEE Act when developing their procurement policies.
What has changed is that organs of state will be able to set and apply specific ‘goals’ when evaluating a tender under a preferential procurement policy.
Despite the provisions of the Constitution, despite the introduction of measures to advance the economic empowerment of black South Africans and women, we are certainly not as far as we had hoped to be with economic transformation.
As I told the inaugural meeting of the newly formed Presidential Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Advisory Council in July, we need to develop a new vision for black economic empowerment that builds on successes, learns from shortcomings, and that responds to local and global economic realities.
There should be no mistake or misunderstanding: broad-based black economic empowerment is not under threat and is not being reconsidered.
The new regulations are not “a victory for sound business practices” as one interest group has claimed. What is unsound, unsustainable and, above all, immoral, is an economy that benefits the few at the expense of the many.
Put plainly, we remain as committed as ever to broad-based black economic empowerment, meeting our localisation objectives and transforming an economy that, despite our best efforts, is still largely controlled by a minority.
As we reflect on 20 years since the passage of the BBBEE Act, as we remedy the shortcomings that exist and chart a new course, we call on business, labour and civil society to join us on this journey.
We have come a long way since the days when only whites were allowed to own businesses and provide goods and services to the state. Where black businesses did exist, they were confined to townships, rural areas and the so-called homelands. We can and must do more to advance economic transformation.
To borrow the words of the National Development Plan, deepening democracy and building a more inclusive society means that we must continuously strive to translate political emancipation into economic wellbeing for all.
With best regards,
FROM THE DESK OF THE PRESIDENT
Monday, 24 October 2022
TOGETHER WE CAN ENSURE STATE CAPTURE NEVER HAPPENS AGAIN