House Chair and hon members, elected and appointed government officials who betray the people they serve through unethical, illegal and greedy pursuance of personal interests, gain or private success should be punished by double measures.
Those who steer public money into their own pockets commit a serious crime against the jobless and poor people who instead could have participated in the economy. We know that more than R615 million from 2005 to 2007 landed in private pockets. Some 30 officials gave themselves undue tenders in excess of R30 million. The fat cats became fatter.
High ethics are key to a corrupt-free society. But some people have no regard for the law or standards. This is more than misconduct or neglect of duty, but a violation. They get unfair advantages, compromise independence, and misuse positions, state facilities, time, employees and inside information for their gains. They stop at nothing and even engage in political influence or collusion. They treat our hard-earned tax money as their cash cow for the milking. They even regulate their own ventures.
As a rule, government employees should avoid conflicts of personal interest and public duty, whether nonprofitable or profitable. They must evade every appearance of conflicts of interest. To do paid private work while working for government is simply wrong. The report before the House is a shame for our country and an indictment of this government. It says that even Ministers, since 2006, did not declare their interests or get permission. Millions of rand went into the pockets of already paid officials.
Cope calls on all to root out corruption or undue enrichment and not condone it by inaction. How can we fight corruption when little happens to those who "Tata machance" and "Tata mamillion"? The Minister of Finance, in fact, said, and I quote: "Take strong action against those who feed selfishly off the state." Cope says we must be alert and blow the whistle.
We must raise the levels of Public Service professionalism and the ethics for conducting business on or off duty. We must embark on a fresh campaign of integrity, clean governance, clean hands and clean conscience and report all deviations. All officials must comply. All employees guilty of this must be shown the door. I thank you. [Applause.]