Firoz Cachalia to chair Ramaphosa’s anticorruption advisory council

President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the final appointments of members of a national anticorruption advisory council on Monday.

The council comprises representatives from civil society, including business, who will work alongside the government to prevent and stamp out wrongdoing, a statement from the presidency said.

The council will advise Ramaphosa on matters related to fighting graft in line with the National Anti-Corruption Strategy 2020-2030. Among the areas of focus, is the effective implementation of the anticorruption strategy by the government and civil society, including the private sector.

The council will also advise on matters related to the state’s comprehensive response to the state capture inquiry’s recommendations. An interdepartmental team led by the presidency is currently developing the government’s response, which Ramaphosa will present to parliament by October 22.

“The [Zondo] commission has made wide-ranging recommendations on dealing with cases of fraud and corruption as presented in testimony to the commission, and measures to be taken to prevent, detect and prosecute corruption across all sectors of society into the future.

“The National Anti-Corruption Advisory Council is a multisectoral partnership for advocacy and action against fraud and corruption that will augment the work done by law enforcement agencies who play an independent role in terms of combating corruption and other criminal activities,” the statement said.

The new body will also advise the government on the critical preventative measures, institutional capabilities and resources that are required to proactively curb a recurrence of state capture and to prevent fraud and corruption in SA.  

Council members who will serve a three-year term from September are Kavisha Pillay, David Lewis, Nkosana Dolopi, Barbara Schreiner, Nokuzola Gloria Khumalo, Firoz Cachalia (chair), Sekoetlane Phamodi, Thandeka Gqubule-Mbeki and Nomandla Dorothy Mhlauli (deputy chair).

The council will engage with sectoral stakeholders, such as organised business and labour, community and faith-based organisations and academia, to further develop the country’s anticorruption agenda and evaluate progress with implementation.

Ramaphosa said the council “is the embodiment of a united resolve as a nation to rid all components of society of all forms of crime and corruption, and develop a whole-of-society response to and prevention of this scourge”.

He said he is optimistic that the fight against corruption is on the right track mainly due to the successes of law enforcement agencies such as the Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU), the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) and the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC), among other agencies. The National Prosecuting Authority’s Investigating Directorate has brought more than 20 corruption cases in the past financial year with 65 suspects charged, including those accused of state capture and other serious corruption cases.

In the same period, the AFU obtained freezing orders to the value of R5.4bn relating to corruption, with R70m paid into the Criminal Assets Recovery Fund. The SIU, over the past eight years, recovered funds and assets of R2.6bn and set aside contracts of R18bn. A total of 119 cases worth more than R13bn had been enrolled by the SIU before the Special Tribunal.

“Corruption is an extremely complex crime to prosecute. Perpetrators go to extraordinary lengths to cover their tracks,” Ramaphosa said. “They set up shelf companies to hide dodgy transactions, rapidly moving money between multiple accounts, misrepresenting income to the tax authorities and, in the case of government employees, using friends and relatives to apply for tenders to mask their involvement.

“This means that the response of the authorities has to be just as sophisticated.” 

With TimesLIVE