Pretoria– The revival of the National Anti-Corruption Forum (NACF) will enable South Africa to develop new strategies to fight the scourge of corruption, says Public Service and Administration Deputy Minister Dipuo Letsatsi-Duba.
“Corruption is a cancer that eats the fibre of society and the morality in general, so the revival of the NACF will enable us to bring new strategies to fight the scourge of corruption in our country.
“As government, the business community, faith-based organisations and the private sector, we must put all our efforts into making sure that we deal with this elephant in the room which is corruption.
“Corruption limits the economic development of countries in general and this has been proved scientifically,” she said.
The Deputy Minister was speaking in Pretoria on Friday during a special meeting convened by Public Service and Administration Minister Faith Muthambi to revive the NACF.
Deputy Minister Letsatsi-Duba said corruption increases the level of poverty, unemployment and it further makes it impossible for government to realise its strategic objective of making a better life for all.
Some representatives at the meeting challenged non-governmental organisations not to turn a blind eye or keep quiet about corrupt activities in the private sector.
At the end of the meeting, there was a general consensus to revive the NACF.
However, delegates emphasised that for the successful revival of the forum, there must be a reconstitution of the NACF. They said this must start with the diagnostic analysis of what led the forum to collapse in order to draw lessons that will inform them about the way forward.
It was also suggested that there is a need for a strategy to seek funding for the anti-corruption forum. Three committees were established and they are expected to report back on a way forward when the forum reconvenes in July.
The NACF was established in 2001 by government, business and civil society with the main aim of preventing and combating all forms of corrupt activities in the country.
However, the last activity of the NACF was its fourth national anti-corruption summit in December 2011, while its last EXCO meeting was held in November 2012.
One of the objectives of the NACF is to advise government on national initiatives on the implementation of strategies to combat corruption.
Once the NACF is revived, it will share information and best practice on sectoral anti-corruption work.
