Husain Mohamed, Radio Islam News – 10-12-2019

As world anti-corruption day was upon us on Monday, The Ahmed Kathrada foundation together with other organizations, including the organization undoing tax abuse (OUTA),  held a civil society Picket against corruption.

The picket took place outside a gathering entitled ‘United against corruption: Building a culture of accountability for sustainable development’

The picket called on the conference to:

• Acknowledge some of the work done by the criminal injustice system in 2019.
• Highlight that there is a growing public impatience with the pace at which work is being done to defeat state capture and bring those implicated in it to account.
• Ensure that government starts looking at a coherent and comprehensive response to corruption and state capture in specific.
• Call on government to conclude its extradition treaties and agreements with countries including UAE and India to bring the Guptas and their associates implicated in state capture back to South Africa to be held accountable here.

The united against corruption gathering draws a range of speakers who occupy senior positions in the state and provides a unique opportunity to show broad societal and state commitment to truly tackling state capture and rebuilding the state, as well as confronting the state capture ‘fightback’ that seeks to undermine the gains we have made so far in dealing with the problem.

The gathering was hosted by the Public service commission, The United Nations and The University of South Africa at the UNISA ZK Matthews Hall in Pretoria. It hosted an array of speakers including Minister of public services Mr Senzo Mchunu, Mr Robert Mcbride, Advocate Shamila Batohi, Prof. Thuli Madonsela and many others.

A lot of good points were raised with Minister Senzo Mchunu saying that a lot more could be done with money lost in corruption.

“It is said that there are enough resources in the world to feed the entire population of 7 billion, but because of corruption we can’t achieve this.”

 A representative from the Ahmed Kathrada foundation handed over a memorandum to the chairperson of the public service commission, Advocate R Sizani, who then presented it in the gathering.