Media Statement: Civil Society Network Against Corruption (CSNAC) / Transparency South Africa Convened Meeting Calls for a Co-ordinated Response to Grand Corporate Corruption
Cape Town, 13 April 2006

The Constitution is the touchstone for all of civil society’s discussions on combating corruption, and we are all committed to an open and transparent democracy.
The focus of this meeting was on large- scale private sector corruption.

Corporate scandals

The meeting commented that the Kebble saga is only the latest in the trail of corporate scandals involving Masterbond, Leisurenet, andÂ MacMed.
The meeting asked why these scandals keep happening and will open up a dialogue with organisations such as SARS and the JSE in order to build an understanding of why such failures in corporate governance repeat themselves.
Civil society in this sector commits itself to monitoring the unfolding of this case, and calls for those who were involved to speak out.
We are concerned that few whistleblowers have emerged from recent corporate scandals. Whistleblowers play an important role in preventing corruption – the 2nd National Anti-Corruption Summit (March 2005) recognised this by calling for the strengthening of whistleblower legislation. We note with concern that there has been little movement in this regard over the past twelve months.

Corporate influence vs. public interest

We wish to register our concern at the payment of judges by private companies. We welcome the process which will create a register of judges interests, but call for even-handedness in its implementation – the bribe payer is just as much at fault as the bribe acceptor.
The buying of influence across sectors such as the judiciary and political parties has the effect of undermining democratic institutions and negatively impacting on public trust in the democratic process.

The Auditor-General’s report on declaration of interests by representatives and officials:

We also wish to commend the recently-released report by the Auditor-General on systemic contravention of disclosure requirements within the public sector by representatives and officials.
We are concerned that tens of thousands of civil servants have private sector interests outside their civil service jobs that may conflict with the public interest, and wish to refer this issue to the NACF for discussion. This issue was raised in the second NAC summit.
We are disappointed that this report was discussed in a closed session of the Parliamentary Ethics Committee.Â
Parliament’s response to the report under-played the Auditor-General’s useful analysis of the non-disclosure of financial interests. All sectors of society, including Parliament, should now engage with the contents of the report to ensure that its substance is addressed fully.

The following members of CSNAC endorse this statement: