During a pre-election debate, political parties contesting the national elections on 7 May weighed in on the areas that the new administration would need to address.
The debate was organised by the South African Board of Jewish Deputies and featured representatives of the ANC, the DA, the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP), the Congress of The People (Cope) and the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP).
The ANC were criticised for the Nkandla controversy and increasing number of service delivery protests across the country.
However, the ANC firmly defended its achievements over the past 20 years.
ANC chair in Gauteng, Paul Mashatile said the ANC government had implemented Chapter 9 institutions such as the Public Protector, Auditor General and Special Investigating Unit to clamp down on corruption.
But the DA’s Mmusi Maimane said there needed to be more transparency in tender adjudication and that greater efforts to clamp down on projects that get “out of hand” were essential. He added that often corruption was not treated as a crime, but rather in a “special way” and therefore it was not properly prosecuted.
IFP secretary general Sibongile Nkomo said the money that was being used and “looted” was public funds and it should be accounted for.
“Corruption needed to be stemmed at the highest level in order to completely eradicate it,” she added.
Cope secretary general Lyndall Shope-Mafole said not enough was done when government officials were found guilty of corruption.
“Before corruption could be weeded out of government it must be removed from the individual parties, she said, adding that Cope had removed its corrupt deputy president.”
The parties conceded that service delivery protests were a severe problem, but could not agree on the reason for them.
Mashatile said the ANC did not oppose protests as long as they were not destructive.
However, he said some protests were not about service delivery and that residents had begun using protests to vent other frustrations.
“The City of Tshwane spent millions for road infrastructure in that community, but there were protests because they (residents) didn’t want to pay for the services government provided,” said Mashatile.
Shope-Mafole said ruling parties should place skilled politicians and public servants in positions to ensure that services were efficiently delivered.
ACDP Parliamentary whip Cheryllyn Dudley said another factor impacting service delivery was that officials suspected of corruption were often suspended with full pay.
Nkomo added that people were often given positions based on nepotism and those people were likely to loot public funds.
She said corrupt officials needed to be arrested and harsher sentences handed down, and anybody misusing public funds should be forced to repay the money.
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