Stamping out public sector corruption starts with procurement reform

We are in the midst of the period of lowest confidence, trust and hope since World War 2. Michael Avery is reminded of Groucho Marx: Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies. With Covid, the ANC and the many authoritarian Marxist-longing leaders it has populated its cabinet with didn’t need to search for a problem. But without scaling up free testing and tracing, and without measures to protect the country’s poorest citizens from the inevitable hardships, the lockdown was always destined to lead us down a path from which no return was possible.The issue of corruption looms largest over all of this though. To loot from funds meant to protect healthcare workers and food parcels for the starving masses is on a scale that would have made even Jacob Zuma blush, what damage has this done to the ANC? Has the ANC’s corruption addiction tipped the scales? Bonang Mohale, chair of Bidvest Group & William Gumede, associate professor at the Wits University School of Governance and author of Restless Nation: Making Sense of Troubled Times, share some good, practical ideas to start rooting out public sector corruption.