The City of Cape Town ranked fifth among the country’s municipalities with the highest number of reported corruption allegations.
A Corruption Watch report titled, South Africa Needs Clean Hands, which was released on Wednesday and highlighted the corruption that plague the country’s municipalities.
Corruption Watch said a record number of 857 corruption allegations at local government were reported to the organisation in 2020 which also saw a 50% increase in cases from the Eastern Cape, Free State, KwaZulu Natal and the Western Cape, when compared to the previous year.
The City of Cape Town ranked fifth with 125 cases. City of Johannesburg topped the list with 700 cases followed by Ekurhuleni with 354, City of Tshwane at 325 and eThekweni with 166.
“What is evident in the majority of corruption cases relating to local governance is that South Africa, broadly, has a leadership crisis,” said the organisation’s Melusi Ncala.
“Consequently, the hedges of the country’s democracy are unprotected because politicians and administrators alike are serving personal, factional and private interests. Not even a global pandemic could make them pause and think about the people they promised to serve. During their frenzy, the hardships experienced by the elderly, unemployed youth, the impoverished men and women, were compounded due to a lack of basic service delivery.”
According to the report the type of corruption reported by whistle-blowers at the City of Cape Town were:
*Irregularities in procurement processes - 17%
*Abuse of power - 18%
*Bribes - 14%
*Fraud - 7%
*Irregularities in getting employment -6%
“Our whistle-blowers allege that nepotism, bribery, and disregard for policies and laws are common practice, with implicated officials rarely facing accountability. In the City of Cape Town, for example, whistle-blowers allege that companies are encouraged to corrupt the municipality by billing double the amount for services,” read the report.
“Furthermore, in the same municipality, it is stated that officials opt to give friends and relatives employment opportunities without following the legislated procedures.”