Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Helen Zille and all other councillors should be life-style audited as part of the fight against corruption, Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said on Wednesday.

"... All public representatives must be subjected to life-style audits," Vavi told the closing session of the three-day National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) national bargaining council in Johannesburg.

"... And when we say so, we're not picky and choosy... This has nothing to do with race. And those who rush to use race in order to hide corruption and wrongdoing must be exposed for what they are.

"There are no black people that are being exposed. Whether you are white or black or green or blue, as long as you are a public servant, you must be subjected to a life-style audit. Full stop.

"Secondly, this has nothing to do with this nonsense that they are targeting African National Congress (ANC) members. It is not only ANC members who are public representatives.

"For God's sake, everybody knows that Helen Zille is the Premier of the Western Cape and is white and is not a member of the ANC.

"We are asking that a life-style audit be done on her as well, together with each and every councillor in the country, whether they are DA or ANC or Inkatha Freedom Party or whoever..."

Vavi said that the existing declaration of interests was "absolutely empty".

"It doesn't tell the nature of the relationship that may exist between that company and the State in order to avoid a conflict of interest between the leadership and their private interest."

He argued that public representatives choose whether they want to work for the State or for business.

"You can't be both. Which is the problem. In fact, the mother of all problems of corruption in South Africa arise out of that interaction."

Vavi said that everyone in the government should be subjected to the same life-style audit, so they could publicly say they had nothing to hide.

"What is so anti-revolution about you explaining how you live? What is so difficult with you explaining how you got into your house and how much is your total income at the end of the month...?" he asked.

"We are not asking that [businessman] Patrice Motsepe be audited, because Patrice Motsepe is not a public representative.

"He has a right like any other person to accumulate wealth in the country. So he is accumulating his wealth, we are not going to be asking him to... be subjected to any investigation.

"We are making a distinction between a public representative and business.

"And we are saying that if you want to be a billionaire and compete with Patrice Motsepe, then go and compete with him. We only don't want you to use your position in the State to compete..." he said.

In his Budget address in February, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan announced that the South African Revenue Service (Sars) would be conducting targeted life-style audits.

A day later, The Star newspaper published its own "life-style audit" of ANC Youth League (ANCYL) president Julius Malema.

In an angry response, the ANCYL suggested that this type of audit be conducted, in particular, of Vavi and Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande.

Vavi responded by calling his life an open book and detailing his income and expenditure.

"You know in particular me, I'm being subjected to every scrutiny... I must explain where my jacket came from... and what type of underwear I'm wearing and which store it was bought," he told Numsa.

"We must cooperate with that thing. Ourselves. It mustn't be that this thing was made for others and not for ourselves. If we ask others to be put into public scrutiny so should we be prepared to subject ourselves to public scrutiny. So they can continue to look... it doesn't matter.

"After all it's not about... me. It's about a very, very important campaign - to clean South Africa," he said.

"We are asking you step up the fight against corruption."