In celebrating International Anti-Corruption Day, the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) has urged South Africans to play an active role in preventing and exposing corruption by reporting it to law enforcement agencies.

The SIU said in a statement that preventing and exposing corruption makes it possible for government to invest public resources in building and maintaining public infrastructure.

It also increases access to basic services such as water and sanitation, healthcare and education.

SIU said corruption and maladministration in government departments, municipalities and State-owned entities are depriving the public of valuable resources.

“Between April 2020 and March 2021, the SIU recovered financial losses suffered by the State to the value of R1.8-billion, prevented losses to the tune of R2.7-billion, and set aside administrative decisions and contracts amounting to R7.1-billion. The money could have been lost to corruption had no one bothered to blow the whistle,” the SIU said.

During the 2020/21 Financial Year, the SIU received a total of 1 276 allegations of corruption and maladministration in government institutions. A total of 410 allegations related to the affairs of the national government were followed by the Gauteng and Limpopo provinces with 258 and 128 respectively.

The SIU received 114 corruption allegations from KwaZulu-Natal and 104 from the Eastern Cape. There were 70 allegations from the North West, 65 from the Western Cape, 57 from the Free State and 52 from Mpumalanga. People of the Northern Cape only reported 18 allegations of corruption to the SIU.

The SIU said it was through the work of brave and caring South Africans that the SIU managed to motivate for President Cyril Ramaphosa to sign Proclamation R23 of 2020 authorising it to investigate allegations of corruption, maladministration and payments made in relation to the procurement of personal protective equipment by State institutions.