Johannesburg - The African National Congress needs to "give a face-lift to its government" and make sure it deploys people of high integrity who will at all times act with utmost professionalism, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) said on Sunday.
Responding to the ANC's January 8 statement delivered by ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa in East London on Saturday, Cosatu spokesperson Sizwe Pamla said the trade union federation supported the ANC national executive committee's (NEC) firm commitment to fight corruption.
Cosatu further agreed with the assertion that all forms of corruption had to be "exposed and prosecuted, including corruption, collusion, and other criminal activities in the private sector".
"Cosatu supports the call by the ANC NEC for strong and efficient law-enforcement agencies to lead the fight against corruption and crime in general. For this to be achieved the ANC needs to give a face-lift to its government and make sure that it deploys people of high integrity who will at all times act with utmost professionalism.
"Some members of the current executive are second rate and not helpful to the cause of a people-centred and people-driven development. The ANC cannot continue to ignore the fact that since 2009 about 216 directors general have been suspended, removed, or shifted in 32 government departments. This is unsustainable and wholly unacceptable," Pamla said.
"The fact of the matter is that South Africa is still condemned to a junk status by the western sovereign rating agencies, which among others was justified on the basis of policy and political instability within government. Decisive action needs to be taken to stop this phenomenon from continuing or we risk failing to sustain the positive economic results that we have seen towards the end of last year.
"We support the plan to reduce the concentration of ownership and control in the economy by expanding the mandate of the competition authorities. We also agree that state procurement and the award of concessions should be used more effectively to promote broad-based black economic empowerment and encourage greater worker ownership," Pamla said.