Dr Benni K Lekubu (Anti-corruption specialist and Senior Lecturer, Department of Police Practice, CLAW) has recently been prominently featured on national and local radio and television stations discussing and contributing immensely to the fight against corruption in the country.

There should be "no holy cows" in the fight against corruption if South Africa is to win the battle against this beast, warns Dr Benni K Lekubu, an anti-corruption specialist and senior lecturer in Unisa’s Department of Police Practice in the College of Law (CLAW).

He writes in an insightful article on the Covid-19 personal protective equipment (PPE) financial scandal allegations that the ill-effects of corruption on the society, polity and economy of a country are far reaching. They have a corrosive effect on the rule of law, on governance and on the welfare of the society.

Lekubu, a seasoned former forensic investigator from the Auditor General South Africa and the Unisa Department of Internal Audit, has recently been prominently featured on national and local radio and television stations discussing and contributing immensely to the fight against corruption in the country.

Some of the issues were related to the Covid-19 budget, VBS corruption scandal, Zondo Commission amended regulations, the newly established anti-corruption task team/centre, and the Public Procurement Bill:

• Ga-Rankuwa FM 107.0 FM: An analysis of the Covid-19 allocated Budget (22 April 2020).
• Newsroom Afrika (Channel 405): An analysis of the VBS Bank Saga (Fraud, Corruption, Governance and Ethics) (25 June 2020).
• SABC 2’s Morning Live (Channel 192): Amendment of the Zondo Commission Regulations (29 July 2020).
• Motsweding FM 91.0 FM: An overview of the Anti-Corruption Task Team/Centre established by the South African President to prevent, detect, investigate and prosecute Covid-19 related corruption (31 July 2020).
• Newsroom Afrika (Channel 405): An analysis on the Public Procurement Bill and its shortcoming looking into the current Covid-19 PPE corruption scandals (5 August 2020).

Lekubu concludes that the success of efforts to fight corruption in the South African public and private institutions does not only rely on law enforcement agencies alone. It will depend on the actions and assistance of all individuals and formations within society - from public servants to politicians, from businesses to political parties, from Parliament to government departments.

Read the full article here.

* Compiled by Sharon Farrell, Editor, Department of Institutional Advancement