President Cyril Ramaphosa has vowed to crack the whip on those responsible for the corruption and fraud in the criminal justice system and at the South African Revenue Services (SARS) – the country’s tax collector.
Ramaphosa made the pledge during his ruling African National Congress party’s conversation with the electorate during an event held in Pretoria on Monday night.
Prior to his address, Ramaphosa’s audience wanted to know what he was going to do about the revelation of corruption and fraud heard at the current hearings of inquiry probing state capture as led by Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo.
Others were concerned about government’s poor performance in service delivery and lack of effective state intervention in the allocation of business opportunities, particularly for disadvantaged black people.
Ramaphosa told his audience that he got his mandate to do away with all the country’s ills at the ANC’s elective conference where he was elected to become the party’s president.
He said this mandate was among the reasons he appointed the Zondo Commission to probe state capture and the Nugent Commission to investigate SARS operations as well as the Mokgoro Inquiry to conduct investigations into the abuses at the National Prosecuting Authority.
“State institutions were targeted to be weakened such as the criminal justice system. SARS was destroyed with a big hammer. Some of its highly skilled left the revenue authority” due to the rampant corruption in the organisation, Ramaphosa said.
He said his plans were to return SARS and other state bodies to their former glory, saying his mission was to ensure efficient and effective government under his helm.
NM/jn/APA