Former Auditor-General and head of investigations for the State capture inquiry Terence Nombembe on Wednesday pointed out that greed is why South Africa is unable to have a decent State.

Nombembe was speaking during a conferenc on State capture hosted by the Public Affairs Research Institute and the Council for the Advancement of the Constitution. The conference was initially scheduled to take place earlier in the year, however, owing to the extensions granted to the Commission to submit its final report, the conference was postponed.

Nombembe said greed was the primary cause for respected individuals or organisations being involved in fraud and corruption scandals.

“And I don’t think we have to be apologetic about that, greed is what is actually consuming and imploding our ability to have a decent State in South Africa. I think we should be very direct - unless we can get rid of greed we will not be able to reverse the tide. That is the animal, that is the enemy we have got to defeat,” he stated.

He said in the context of State capture, people were not looking for food, but rather for wealth and power because of greed.

He warned that South Africa had leadership that was supposed to prevent management themselves overriding the controls.

He said during State capture there was a breach of the code of professional conduct by some people in leadership positions, in assurance roles, in the civil service and even in law enforcement agencies, as well as business.

“It’s basically breach over breach by everyone that supposed to be a trusted player in the system, all because of greed. Not to mention the excessive use of cash and other means to actually make sure that people look the other way, taking bribes and kickbacks,” he said.

Harmful means were used to victimise those that pushed back and tried to expose wrongdoing, he noted.

Nombembe said there was no denial that many of the Commission’s recommendations required further investigation, particularly by the law enforcement agencies.

He said in his view the things that were found by the State Capture Commission were still happening today.

CONSISTENCY AND PUBLIC VISIBILITY

Meanwhile, he said there was consistency and fairness in the manner in which the State Capture Commission operated.

He said the continuous public visibility of processes at the Commission was important.

He explained that the agility of the delivery team, working using less traditional and tried-and-tested methods, was a hallmark of the success of the processes, and stressed that without agility there would have been multiple conflicts, delays and unnecessary arguments.

He said it was important for the delivery team to work in such a manner that would ensure that there was flexibility and agility aligned to the chairperson’s priorities.

He said the issue of integrity and ethical culture was something that could also not be taken for granted or compromised and that it had to be the inherent cornerstone of the whole delivery team.