COSATU has noted the Auditor-General’s report confirming our suspicions that there was corruption and fraud in the procurement of PPEs and there were reprehensible and corrupt activities at the UIF, in particular, in its Covid-19 Temporary Employment Relief Scheme (TERS).  The Federation salutes and commend the Office of the Auditor-General for its tireless work in exposing and fighting corruption.

We note the suspension of the UIF’s Commissioner, Chief Operations Officer, and Chief Financial Officer.  But more needs to be done to hold the criminals involved to account. We reiterate our call for the President and relevant investigative authorities to deal with this problem quickly.

 The President needs to issue an urgent proclamation for the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) to look into serious allegations at UIF, including allegations that Covid-19 TERS Funds were pocketed by some of these unscrupulous employers. 

The government needs to strengthen the capacity of our law enforcement and prosecutorial bodies so that they can expedite and increase their efforts to investigate, prosecute and convict the implicated crooks and criminals.

The private sector and the public sector need to come together to fight corruption. As a country, we need to establish a clean robust clean government system and promote business integrity.

We also need to deal with the public’s level of tolerance for corruption. People see nothing wrong with paying a bribe to get what they want or speed up a process in their favour; this needs to be fixed.

We also need to do a better job of protecting whistle-blowers. Legislators and other relevant authorities need to follow the UN Convention Against Corruption standards that calls for a more stringent legal framework and the amendment of legislation, where necessary.

This AG‘s report presents a major test for President Cyril Ramaphosa’s administration and we hope the administration will pass it with flying colours for the sake of the country. We will judge the administration on results and not its intentions in the fight against corruption.

Issued by COSATU
 Sizwe Pamla (Cosatu National Spokesperson) Tel: 011 339 4911
Fax: 011 339 5080
Cell: 060 975 6794