This is what really happens to corrupt government officials once they’ve been caught

South African Minister of Public Enterprises Malusi Gigaba has revealed the number of misconduct and corruption activities reported to the national disclosure framework and corruption hotline over the past 13 years.

Gigaba was highlighting data between September 2004 and January 2017.

Speaking at a Governance and Administration Cluster media briefing on Thursday (9 March), the minister noted that the overall declaration rate by the national and provincial departments stood at 98% in the 2015/2016 financial year.

The majority of corruption cases however, stemmed from the National Anti-Corruption Hotline (NACH) with 18,778 cases referred to government departments as of 31 January 2017. Of these 17,240 (92%) cases were received while 16,947 (90%) cases were closed.

“The closure rate underscores a commitment by government departments to investigate allegations of corruption as reported through the NACH,” said Gigaba.

“The successful investigation of cases of alleged corruption reported to the NACH resulted in the recovery of R410 million from perpetrators. It is, therefore, evident that the NACH has yielded positive results, not only in terms of monetary value but also in terms of disciplinary action taken against perpetrators.”

However despite the high figures and money recovered, only 3,600 officials were found guilty of misconduct related to corrupt activities reported to the NACH in the Public Service between 1 September 2004 and 31 January 2017.

Guilty officials received the following punishment:

• 1,700 officials were dismissed from the Public Service.
• 447 officials were fined (e.g. not receiving three month salary).
• 137 officials were demoted.
• 921 officials were given final written warnings.
• 395 officials were prosecuted.

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