The Public Service Accountability Monitor (PSAM) says failure to hold public office bearers accountable for maladministration has negatively affected South African institutions.
This comes after Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini spent a gruelling four days testifying before an inquiry on the social grants debacle.
Other recent inquiries investigating officials include the Eskom Parliamentary inquiry into corruption at the power utility, and the Life Esidimeni hearings, where 144 patients died at unlicensed NGOs.
The PSAM’s Zukiswa Kota explains: “I think accountability itself in some ways is a multi-dimensional thing – on one hand adhering to the rules and regulations and on the other its ensuring you respect the job and the public division that you have been given. I think they are failing to fulfil regulations and accountability and their consequence management is just non-existent. Very often the cracks open up and there is space for corruption and space for misuse of public funds, abuse of public trust is immediate. But perhaps there is still space to look deeper into accountability.”
