Prof De Visser speaks at Local Government Anti-corruption Summit

In March this year, South African Local Government Association (Salga) announced that at least R81-billion is owed to municipalities for services. In line with this yesterday it convened the Anti-Corruption Summit and National Members Assembly at the Cape Town International Convention Centre.

This two day assembly will see panel discussions about pertinent issues in the fight against corruption in South African municipalities.

The Community Law Centre’s director Prof De Visser made a presentation at this summit, focusing on the detection and eradication of corruption in municipalities. He shared his insights on how municipalities can improve internal oversight by, for example, establishing and empowering Municipal Public Accounts Committees and implementing a separation of functions between legislative and executive branches in the municipality. Prof De Visser input was followed by responses of Ms Msibi of the Audit-General's Office and Mr Kruuse of the Public Service and Accountability Monitor. The session was chaired by Cllr Nkosi (Salga MP).

More than 700 delegates attended the summit and engaged with inputs by, amongst other, Thuli Madonsela – Pubic Protector • Nicola Whittaker – Head of Legal and Investigations at Corruption Watch • Andries Nel – Deputy Minister of Cooperative Government and Traditional Affairs • Parks Tau – Salga NEC Member • Yusuf Abramjee – CrimeLine Head.

The summit is a follow-up to the 2011 Salga National Conference which resolved that local government, as the closest sphere to communities, has to lead the fight against corruption and maladministration. This position was informed by a study undertaken by Salga. The study argued that not enough was being done to address corruption and maladministration in municipalities.