The South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) marks International Anti-Corruption Day against the backdrop of a country bled dry by systemic looting, political protection of criminals, corporate tax crime, procurement rackets, illicit financial flows, and the blood of whistle-blowers.
What is often referred to as “tenderpreneurship”, a polite term for public-private plundering systems falsely branded as Black Economic Empowerment, remains a constant reminder of what is at stake when the state is captured by private accumulation. Earlier this year, Transparency International ranked South Africa 98th out of 180 countries on its Corruption Perceptions Index. Yet during the 2000–2020 period of PwC’s biannual Economic Crime and Fraud Surveys, South Africa’s corporate elites were repeatedly ranked among the worst offenders globally.
Having profited systemically under apartheid without paying reparations or wealth
taxes, sections of capital clearly learned a dangerous lesson: they can get away
with anything.
For SAFTU, corruption is therefore not a moral failure of a few individuals. It is an
organising principle of a corrupt political-economic system that transfers wealth
from workers and the poor to a criminal elite, located both inside the state and at
the commanding heights of capitalism.
Auditor-General Reports: Local Government Has Become the Largest State
Crime Scene
For more than a decade, the Auditor-General has issued consistently damning
reports showing:
- Chronic failure to account for public money
- Rampant irregular expenditure
- Exploding fruitless and wasteful expenditure
- Collapse of internal controls
- Political interference in procurement
Municipalities have become the epicentre of criminal extraction:
- Water systems collapse, but billions are spent.
- Electricity networks fail, but contracts are inflated
- Housing projects stall while contractors disappear
Workers are told this is a capacity problem.
The truth is this: it is a collapse in leadership, ethics, and consequence management driven by corruption. The widespread corporatisation and privatisation of basic services entrench this plunder, while outsourcing fuels cronyism and extreme exploitation. What is needed instead is mass insourcing, just as #FeesMustFall won for university workers, to break the grip of tender networks and restore the state’s duty to provide public goods.
Corporate Corruption: The Private Sector Is Deeply Criminalised
Global economic crime surveys consistently confirm that:
- South Africa ranks among the worst globally for economic crime
- Bribery, cartel collusion, procurement fraud, and money laundering dominate
- Executives and boards are often directly involved
In 2020, PwC’s lead forensic partner admitted that bribery and corruption had
become the most serious economic crime affecting South African business, with senior management increasingly central to these crimes.
This exposes the lie that corruption is merely a public-sector problem.
State capture was not only political, but it was corporate-driven.
Yet many corporate criminals continue to walk free, including those involved in currency manipulation in the “ZAR Domination” chat room, while South Africa was placed on the FATF grey list due to weak financial regulation.
Tax Crime, Procurement Theft and Illicit Financial Flows: How the Rich Starve the State
Major tax reform investigations exposed how:
- Corporations shift profits offshore
- The wealthy hide assets in tax havens
- Workers carry the tax burden while elites evade
At the same time, National Treasury’s former procurement head Kenneth
Brown confirmed that 30–40% of government procurement is lost to corruption,
overpricing and bid-rigging. Beyond this, illicit financial flows drain tens to hundreds of billions of rand each year through:
- Trade mispricing
- Fake invoicing
- Offshore laundering
- Secrecy jurisdictions
This outflow, amplified by exchange-control liberalisation, is why workers are
told there is:
- “No money” for wages
- “No money” to fill vacancies
- “No money” for clinics, schools, and rail
Yet there is unlimited money for thieves.
Austerity is not an economic necessity; it is the political protection of theft.
Tembisa Hospital: Over R2 Billion Looted from the Sick and Dying
The SIU interim report exposed over R2 billion looted at Tembisa
Hospital through:
- PPE fraud
- Inflated infrastructure tenders
- Irregular supply-chain contracts
Key figures include Hangwani Morgan Maumela and companies linked.
to Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala.
While nurses worked without PPE and patients lay on the floor, these networks:
- Bought supercars
- Lived in mansions
- Displayed obscene opulence
This was not corruption; it was social murder for profit.
The Culture of Opulence: Theft Becomes a Lifestyle
For years, South Africans have been subjected to the offensive spectacle of political
opulence funded by stolen public money. This culture has now spread into the bureaucracy itself, with senior municipal officials, including the former Municipal Manager of Ekurhuleni, allegedly copying this criminal lifestyle while services collapse.
Corruption is no longer an exception. It is becoming a career path.
As Frantz Fanon warned decades ago, the post-colonial elite often begins its life
already politically senile and morally bankrupt.
Whistle-Blowers Are Being Hunted While Thieves Walk Free
SAFTU condemns the systematic killing, intimidation, and victimisation of
whistle-blowers.
Workers who expose corruption:
- Lose their jobs
- Are forced into exile
- Or are murdered
The most chilling example remains the assassination of a key witness to the Madlanga Commission, gunned down after exposing torture, murder, and police corruption. If you steal billions, you negotiate court dates. If you testify, you get a coffin. This is the moral inversion of justice.
Zondo Commission: Mountains of Evidence, Selective Prosecution
The Zondo Commission exposed:
- State capture of Eskom, Transnet, SARS, PRASA, and Home Affairs
- Criminal procurement networks
- Corporate bribery through Bosasa
- Political protection inside the ruling party
SAFTU notes arrests and prosecutions of several figures. However:
Selective justice is destroying the credibility of the entire anti-corruption
project.
President Ramaphosa himself admitted that the ANC stands accused as “Accused Number One.” Yet those at the apex remain shielded.
Phala-Phala: The Crisis of Presidential Accountability
The Phala-Phala foreign-currency scandal remains unresolved.
About US$580,000, by the President’s own version, was hidden in furniture at a
private game farm and allegedly stolen.
A Section 89 Independent Panel appointed by the Speaker of Parliament found
that the President has a case to answer. Yet the ruling party blocked accountability.
SAFTU further recalls Ramaphosa’s role in the Marikana Massacre, when he called
striking workers “dastardly criminals,” followed by the killing of 34 workers. The Farlam Commission also heard evidence of illicit financial flows involving Lonmin.
Public Protector Findings: Corruption Without Political Consequences
The Public Protector has issued multiple damning findings against senior leaders,
including:
- Findings that the ANC Secretary-General acted improperly and violated the Executive Ethics Code
- Findings against the former Police Minister over illegal SAPS property leases
Yet these individuals were later promoted. In today’s ruling elite, constitutional findings carry no political cost.
“Renew or Perish”: The ANC’s Crisis of Integrity
As the ANC meets under the slogan “renew or perish”, SAFTU states plainly that the crisis of integrity sits at the very top:
- The National Chairperson faces unresolved Bosasa allegations
- The President carries the unresolved Phala Phala scandal
- The Secretary-General carries two damning Public Protector reports
- The Deputy Secretary-General carries unresolved Zondo findings.
At the same time, the Secretary-General tables a medium-term review admitting
that the ANC has lost its shine and voters deserted it en masse, yet he draws
no connection between this collapse and the ethical findings against himself.
When those who preside over renewal are themselves compromised, renewal
becomes fiction.
The Regeneration Must Begin with the Working Class Itself
The fight against corruption cannot be left to compromised elites. The true regeneration of society must be led by the organised working class. That regeneration must begin at home.
Workers must:
- Purge corrupt leaders from the trade-union movement
- Expose compromised civil society figures who sell out struggles
- Rebuild a militant, ethical worker-controlled movement rooted in accountability
Clean hands are not optional in a dirty war.
One Message on This International Anti-Corruption Day
Corruption is an elite programme to steal from the poor and destroy the future.
It robs children of education, workers of jobs, communities of services, and youth of hope, and replaces that with private jets, offshore accounts, and guarded mansions.
The future will not be saved by commissions alone.
It will be saved by workers who refuse to be governed by thieves.
It will be saved by a mass movement that says: Enough is enough.
A statement was issued on behalf of SAFTU General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi.
For media inquiries, contact the National Spokesperson at:
Newton Masuku:
0785164094
Media Officer
Asive Dyani
0719019564
