Bravo, Scopa, for fighting graft where Hawks won’t

There are negatives and positives about the R84 million that vanished from a district municipality in the North West – an event which the Hawks did not deem worthy of investigation.

The negative is that the crime unit appears to have been sloppy in accepting explanations that the money – part of R134 million paid in error to the Bojanala municipality – had been paid back, when it had not.

The positive is that the provincial special committee on public accounts (Scopa) doesn’t accept that the Hawks closed the investigation.

And that is encouraging because the fight against the widespread corruption and looting – and this appears to be yet another blatant example – is not going to develop momentum without support from all South Africans.

The North West Scopa, which is dominated by the ANC, has shown it is not prepared to let this sort of theft go unpunished … and that is a stark contrast to many ANC cadres, office holders and oversight bodies, which have turned a blind eye over the years to such conduct.

Theft of state money is not, as some would believe, a victimless crime. It hurts all South Africans and must be stopped in its tracks.

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.