By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) says it wants to exert more pressure on government to establish an independent anti-corruption body to prevent another round of state capture,
Addressing the media on Wednesday, DA leader John Steenhuisen gave a detailed breakdown of the party’s plans to tackle the resurgence of state capture through various steps.
These steps include reimplementing the Scorpions as an independent institution and strengthening agencies tasked with investigating and prosecuting those involved in corrupt activities.
Steenhusien says the process to implement a raft of recommendations and structural changes to South Africa’s state institutions and oversight bodies has come to a grinding halt.
“In the National Assembly, of the 16 recommendations made by the state capture report to bolster and fix Parliament’s model of accountability over the executive, the majority of the substantive and immediately implementable recommendations have already been voted down by the ANC.
“In a briefing to parliament’s Select Committee on Security and Justice on its annual performance plan earlier this year, National Director of Prosecutions Shamila Batohi and officials from the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said that the institution does not have the skills or the legal powers to adequately probe state capture. To add insult to injury, there still exists no truly independent corruption-busting body similar to the Scorpions, which the ANC disbanded years ago.”
He added that ANC party members who were implicated in the state capture commission were awarded positions in the party’s highest ranks during its recent national conference.
Steenhuisen believes a fully-functional legislature does not serve the ANC’s interests.
“A year after the report was tabled in Parliament, there have been no substantive changes to the way the ANC conducts the work of the institution. It is important to highlight that it is the ANC that has no interest in a Parliament that functions well. The party has blocked every attempt to exercise executive oversight using its numbers in the House.
“In fact, the ANC has taken a hostile posture towards the standing of the Commission’s work, often labelling it has judicial over-reach and relegating to simple recommendations which can be ignored.”
The DA’s Werner Horn said the party had proposed legislation to have “the Scorpions 2.0” established to independently fight corruption.
“The DA will be tabling a constitutional amendment for the establishment of the Scorpions 2.0 – a Chapter 9 anti-corruption body to work independently of the executive and without the threat of disbandment by Parliament,” Horn said.
He said that would ensure that a decision for it to be disbanded would require 75% of the Members of Parliament’s vote.
“This is an opportunity to ensure that the other characteristics of a truly independent anti-corruption entity … are also incorporated: A specialised, properly trained and professional staff component which enjoys the security of tenure. An entity which is properly resourced and not subjected to the whims of the government of the day when it comes to funding.”