‘Tentacles of corruption know no bounds,’ says Ekurhuleni mayor on lifestyle audits for councillors

Anticorruption advocacy body Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) has welcomed as “a significant step” a move by City of Ekurhuleni mayor Tania Campbell to introduce lifestyle audits for all councillors in a motion passed by the council with an overwhelming majority.

“All councillors in Ekurhuleni will be subjected to a lifestyle audit in two phases,” said Campbell. “The first phase, to be conducted in the next six months, will start with the executive mayor, speaker, whip, mayoral committee, chairs, leaders and chief whips of all political parties.

“Once this process is concluded, all remaining councillors will undergo this vetting process. If the conduct of a councillor is found to be in breach of the councillor code of conduct, the speaker will refer the matter to the city’s ethics and integrity committee for further investigation and scrutiny.

“Thereafter, a report will be submitted to the council and to the office of the MEC for cooperative governance and traditional affairs for further action.”

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Campbell said of the motion, based on the councillor code of conduct contained in Schedule 7 of the Municipal Structures Amendment Act: “As we have witnessed with state capture, the tentacles of corruption know no bounds.

“If left unchecked, they squeeze their way into the pockets of compliant politicians – always at the expense of service delivery. These lifestyle audits will go a long way in the fight against corruption.”

Lifestyle audits ‘a significant step’

Outa chief executive Wayne Duvenage welcomed the initiative as “a significant step, which should be used by all municipalities and metros.

“Lifestyle audits are a very effective tool to establish which full-time employed council members are earning above their salaries and other disclosed means of income to root out corruption within local government.”

He added: “It really is a pity that all municipalities and metros are not compelled to use these avenues to fight corruption – even within all departments at a national government level.

“Consequence management should also be undertaken to remove councillors found wanting when it comes to corruption. This is a significant problem in local government, where very little is done to hold people to account.”

– brians@citizen.co.za