The minister of Justice, Jeff Hadebe, announced that government's plan to go head on with corruption are gaining momentum. This is after he announced that it plans to release a list of all officials in the public office who are involved in corruption. He said they now have a list that has 32 officials involved in corruption that made them benefit about R5 million.
Many organisations have welcome this move and they are confident that it displays government commitment to fighting corruption. Some organisations have also asked the Minister to ensure that this process cuts across all levels of administration and all provincial governments including the DA led Western Cape government. These calls follow numerous reports of tender fixing and extension involving senior government officials of the DA.
In his statement Jeff Hadebe said:
"The fight against crime requires that we deal effectively with corrupt officials whose actions undermine the integrity of the criminal justice system and the work of the JCPS cluster as a whole. Similarly since 2010, 237 persons have been arrested , 32 have convicted whilst only 2 have been acquitted and the other 203 accused persons are still before court. The cluster is committed to fighting corruption at all levels and areas of our society. Since the establishment of the ACTT in 2010, good progress has been made in recovering the proceeds of corruption. Criminal assets of 59 persons to the value of R816 million have already been frozen. Nearly R78 million has already been forfeited and returned to the state.
"The fight against crime requires that we deal effectively with corrupt officials whose actions undermine the integrity of the criminal justice system and the work of the JCPS cluster as a whole. Similarly since 2010, 237 persons have been arrested , 32 have convicted whilst only 2 have been acquitted and the other 203 accused persons are still before court. The cluster is committed to fighting corruption at all levels and areas of our society. Since the establishment of the ACTT in 2010, good progress has been made in recovering the proceeds of corruption. Criminal assets of 59 persons to the value of R816 million have already been frozen. Nearly R78 million has already been forfeited and returned to the state.
The ACTT, working with the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform, have recovered 3 farms to the value of R59 million which were lost through corruption. These can now be used for proper service delivery to the poor in the land reform program. Another 5 farms to the value of R74 million have been frozen and should be recovered soon.
Good progress is also being made with regard to our intervention in Limpopo in terms of Section 100 of the constitution. The ACTT is currently investigating 39 criminal cases involving fraud and corruption. This includes 29 persons and 4 companies were brought before the court as part of the on - going criminal investigations.
About 87 persons have been identified as having potentially benefitted more than R5 million from corrupt activities. Freezing orders have already been obtained against 32 persons who personally benefitted R5 million. The use of freezing orders is an important weapon of fighting corruption to prevent those involved in corruption from benefitting from ill - gotten gains while their cases are being finalised."
