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Minister in the Presidency Mondli Gungubele says the Cabinet believes enough is being done in government's fight against corruption.

Gungubele was speaking at a media briefing on Thursday on the outcomes of a Cabinet meeting held the day before.

He said 120 corruption cases were before the High Court and the Special Tribunal, and that, as of March 2021, R42-billion in pension benefits and bank accounts had been frozen.

The pension funds and bank accounts belong to individuals being investigated by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) for alleged corruption.

Gungubele's media briefing coincided with International Anti-Corruption Day, commemorated annually on 9 December, in recognition of the United Nations Convention against Corruption, which was signed in Mexico in 2003.

The day provides an opportunity for political leaders, governments, legal bodies and lobby groups to join forces against corruption. On this day, anti-corruption advocates also engage the general public on effectively fighting corruption and fraud in communities.

Gungubele said "corruption, whether large or small, remained one of the greatest challenges facing the country and held back economic growth and social development".

"Cabinet remains encouraged that the justice system continues to take decisive steps to bring those who were found to have been involved in acts of corruption to account," he added.

Gungubele said one such proactive endeavour by the justice sector was the State Capture Inquiry.

"The commission of inquiry into allegations of state capture is scheduled to submit its final report to President Cyril Ramaphosa on 1 January 2022. Watch this space. Cabinet anticipates that in addition to exposing the perpetrators of corruption, this report will also provide us with proposals on how to strengthen our systems to prevent corruption," the minister said.

He praised the SIU for instituting a number of cases in the High Court and the Special Tribunal.

"The following are pending as of 31 March 2021: 56 cases in the highest court, which involved contracts to the amount of 62-billion. There are also 64 case at the Special Tribunal, which involves contracts to the tune of R6.99-billion. The amounts, or values, are the contractual amounts which were irregularly and unlawfully awarded by state institutions and form the basis of the litigation by the SIU," said Gungubele.

"In the financial year 2020-'21, the SIU has already frozen pension benefits of former civil servants, bank accounts and accounts of individuals and businesses amounting to R42-billion."

He said between April 2020 and March 2021 President Cyril Ramaphosa had signed nine SIU proclamations empowering the investigating unit to probe cases of corruption as part of the government's fight against corruption.

The government has again extended the state of disaster, which was set to expire on 15 December by another month, minister in the Presidency Mondli Gungubele announced on Thursday.

Gungubele said Cabinet had now decided to extend the national state of disaster by a further month to 15 January next year.

This comes while no decision has yet been taken by government on imposing a vaccine mandate.

The decision would make it the 22nd month under the state of disaster since it was initially declared at the end of March 2020.

The minister in the Presidency noted that Cabinet had joined President Cyril Ramaphosa in praising the country's scientists who identified and alerted the world to the new omicron variant.

"Cabinet joined President Cyril Ramaphosa in applauding our scientists for having alerted the world about the Omicron variant that has been speaking around world and we [Cabinet] continue to support calls of the immediate lifting of unfair travel bans on our country and other Southern African countries," said Gungubele.

He reiterated that during the meeting on Wednesday, Cabinet also noted the drastic increase in the Covid-19 infections and was urging citizens to fight back against these increased infections through vaccinating and continuing to adhere to non-pharmaceutical interventions, such as wearing masks, sanitising and social distancing.

Gungubele also called on citizens to avoid super-spreader events, such as festivals.

The minister said it was still unclear whether hasher regulations would be instituted as a result of the increase in new cases, and the increased hospitalisations.

"It's difficult to have a specify answer until the National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC) meets. The assessment given by the medical advice counsel to the NCCC will then inform whether a family meeting will take place. What we are monitoring right now with the new variant is the clinical manifestations.

"The nature of the clinical manifestation, whether the variant makes people sick to a point of needing hospitalisation or not, will indicate the possible threat to hospital loads and that would inform the measure to be taken.

"So far the reports we are getting is that there is no red flags," said Gungubele.

He added that government was also trying to strike a balance between life and livelihood.

"It's no longer in dispute, the damage the restrictions caused last year when we were in level five restriction. A number of jobs were lost, thousands of business stopped and the uncertainty that was cause was not good.

"The attitude that government is taking is that we should find the best possible way of navigating this phase while making sure that the economy is safeguarded," said Gungubele.

He added that a policy to encourage vaccination while discouraging anti-vaccination talk was needed in the country to ensure that South Africa was able to vaccinate more than 70% of its population.

The minister also revealed that as yet, there was no finality in terms of the mandatory vaccination.

The African Transformation Movement (ATM) has resubmitted a motion of no confidence in President Cyril Ramaphosa to National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula.

In an email to her, dated 7 December 2021, ATM president Vuyolwethu Zungula argued that since Ramaphosa took the reins, "irregular expenditure in government and state-owned entities (SOEs) increased to R61.35-billion in the 2018/2019 audit period, from R50.1-billion in the previous year and SOEs continue to collapse, without anyone being held accountable for this gross behaviour".

He also submitted that Ramaphosa misled the nation about load-shedding when he promised that it would be a thing of the past.

"The president has grossly mismanaged the economy so that there has been a loss of confidence by local and international investors; under the president's watch there has been an increase in corruption, inequality, and unemployment."

"The ATM acknowledges that its challenges regarding the president are heavy. The ATM stands by its complaints about the president and his conduct," read the email.

This comes after the Supreme Court of Appeal set aside a decision by previous speaker's rejection of a request by the minority ATM for a secret ballot in a motion of no confidence against Ramaphosa.

In a unanimous judgment of a full Bench, written by Judge Trevor Gorven, the appellate court ordered that the request should be resubmitted to the speaker and reconsidered, while awarding the ATM costs.

The court found that Modise misunderstood her discretion in the matter and, as per the ruling, Mapisa-Nqakula is compelled to reconsider the resubmitted motion.

The party - which has just two seats in Parliament - first tabled its motion against Ramaphosa in February 2020, and asked that voting be done by secret ballot.

In his correspondence with the speaker, Zungula noted the recent judgment saying: "On 2 December 2021, the Supreme Court of Appeal upheld the ATM's appeal against the High Court of South Africa, Western Cape Division, Cape Town judgment".

He cautioned the new speaker that she was required to decide afresh whether the motion of no confidence in the president should be voted on by an open or closed vote.

The email read, "In the prevailing circumstances, a closed vote is the only rational possibility. It is now trite that the decision by the speaker as to whether a vote in a motion of no confidence in the president is to be open or closed must be rational to survive constitutional scrutiny."

"And to be rational, it must be 'situation-specific' and involve a conspectus of all the circumstances," read the email.

The party is hoping to have the motion of no confidence vote scheduled for late January, given that the National Assembly is expected to go into recess on 10 December and reconvene on 25 January.

The Gauteng High Court in Pretoria has declared that R111-million in the frozen bank accounts of Hammanskraal businessman Thabo Abel Simbini is forfeited to the State.

The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said the forfeiture order the court issued on Tuesday followed a successful preservation order it obtained last year in terms of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act on the basis that the funds constituted the proceeds of crime.

The NPA alleges that Simbini, through his business Impossible Services (Pty) Ltd, defrauded the UIF by claiming he had to lay off more than 6 000 employees because of Covid-19.

"The unlawful activities were committed against the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) of the Department of Employment and Labour. An amount of R111-million that was intended for Covid-19 relief fund[ing] and individual claims not related to Covid-19 [were] fraudulently paid into [the] Impossible Services Pty Ltd FNB bank account belonging to Thabo Abel Simbini," the NPA said in a statement.

Regional NPA spokesperson Lumka Mahanjana added, "After the funds were fraudulently paid into this account, Thabo Abel Simbini transferred the monies to several FNB bank accounts."

On 13 November 2020, the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) issued intervention notices to various banks to temporarily "freeze" the funds implicated in the actions of Impossible Services to assist law-enforcement agencies with their process of possible recovery, according to the NPA.

"This resulted in the AFU successfully obtaining [a] preservation order. The success of the application is directly related to the productive and professional working relationship that exists in the Fusion Centre between the FIC, DPCI (The Hawks), and other law enforcement agencies, as well as the Asset Forfeiture Unit," Mahanjana said.

The NPA said the recovered funds would be paid back to the UIF.

Simbini is facing charges of corruption in the matter before the Pretoria Specialised Commercial Crime Court. He was arrested in 2020 during an undercover operation by the Hawks.

It is alleged that he tried to "bribe the UIF official for the release of the stolen funds. He paid the UIF official a bribe of R10 000 and was arrested [during] a sting operation by members of the DPCI".

The matter was postponed to 1 February 2022.

Only 27% of the 425 government departments and entities audited by the Auditor-General (AG) have received clean audits.

But the administration of President Cyril Ramaphosa had been driving increases in the number of clean audits achieved, according to Auditor-General Tsakani Maluleke.

Maluleke said several government departments would have moved into the clean audit zone without one or two problems.

On Wednesday, she briefed a joint sitting of Parliament's standing committees on the auditor-general and public accounts on the audit outcomes for national and provincial departments for the 2020/21 financial year that ended in March.

Maluleke told MPs the 115 auditees with a clean audit status represented 19% of the expenditure budget of R1.9-trillion managed by the national and provincial governments.

The 115 auditees include 48 departments and 67 public entities.

"The number of clean audits increases every year due to significant effort and commitment by the leadership, officials and governance structures of these auditees.

"At least 31 auditees are very close to obtaining a clean audit status. Some have been working towards this goal for many years and, if they achieve it in 2021/22, we anticipate an uptick in clean audits," Maluleke said in the 2020/21 cycle report.

She added it was often challenging to sustain a clean audit if financial and performance management systems and controls were not operating effectively.

"It is commendable that 62 auditees have managed to retain their clean audit status since the first year of the current administration."

Irregular expenditure increased to R166.85-billion from R109.82-billion in the previous year, despite the progress.

The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) was responsible for R77.49-billion of the total amount.

Criteria

Maluleke said this was mainly because NSFAS failed to consult with the higher education minister on the funding rules and eligibility criteria for student bursaries, as required by legislation.

"In reality, irregular expenditure could be even higher, as 30% of auditees were qualified because the amount they disclosed was incomplete and/or they had incurred irregular expenditure, but the full amount was not known. We were also unable to audit R2.14-billion worth of contracts because the information was missing or incomplete," she added in the report.

Meanwhile, unauthorised expenditure totalled R3.21-billion, all from budget overspending.

"Budget cuts and reprioritisation, along with emergency and unplanned spending in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, meant departments had less funding available. Claims against the state further reduced available budgets, as most departments do not budget for such claims.

"Even in these circumstances, good financial management should not suffer - instead, it should be reinforced to ensure that the limited funds available are spent wisely and within budget," Maluleke said.

There were also high levels of fruitless and wasteful expenditure, with 224 auditees losing a total of R1.72-billion in the current year.

In the 2020/21 audit cycle, the AG audited 679 departments and public entities, but the report focuses on the results of 425 audits.

Public Service Commission (PSC) compliance reports continue to raise the alarm about national and provincial government departments' slow adherence to a 30-day supplier payment policy.

On Tuesday, the PSC said that although there were improvements in some government departments, the issue remained a concern. Late payment has a dire impact on the survival of suppliers, PSC commissioner Michael Seloane said.

"Unpaid invoices have the potential of destabilising any business, especially the SMMEs whose lifeblood is the sufficient availability of cash flow, which ultimately impact negatively on government's initiative of achieving its job creation and economic growth outcomes," Seloane added.

Nationally, the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure showed significant improvement in dealing with outstanding invoices monthly from July to September.

The department recorded 11 outstanding invoices in July at a cost of R 307 124. In September, the number declined to two unpaid invoices worth R55 767.

The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy showed improvement from 13 invoices in July, valued at R 12 737 900. In September, the department had only 7 outstanding invoices at the cost of R 7 489 310.

Government departments are required to submit payment reports to National Treasury. Still, the Departments of Traditional Affairs, Correctional Services, and Justice and Constitutional Development failed to submit reports for the September period.

Provincial non-compliance

Gauteng, the Eastern Cape and the North West have reported a high number of unpaid invoices.

"As at the end of September 2021, the Eastern Cape recorded 4 648 invoices with a related cost of R 2 280 024 142, compared to 8 057 invoices with a related cost of R 2 228 122 449. For Gauteng, 4 855 invoices with a related cost of R 1 044 398 803 were recorded at the end of September 2021, compared to 1 677 invoices with a related cost of R 790 771 938 at the end of June 2021.

"The North West recorded 4 340 invoices with a related cost of R 266 912 565 at the end of September 2021, compared to 5 527 invoices with a related cost of R 456 021 865 at the end of June 2021," Seloane said.

Mpumalanga failed to report for August and September, and the Western Cape did not report for September.

Seloane said the commission might have to apply stricter measures to improve compliance with Public Finance Management Act.

He pointed to the delay in the tabling of the Public Procurement Bill, which has yet to be presented to Cabinet and aims to professionalise supply chain management in the government.

It was earmarked for presentation by December 2021.

The new deadline is 2022/23, Seloane said.

Investigations into the irregular R150-million Digital Vibes contract have so far yielded little results as only R12-million has been repaid by those who benefitted illegally.

According to the Special Investigating Unit (SIU), approximately R22-million is contained in several bank accounts resulting from cash flows from the Digital Vibes Nedbank account.

On Tuesday, SIU head advocate Andy Mothibi and his senior management presented their investigations into the procurement of Covid-19 personal protective equipment (PPE) and other related matters to Parliament's finance watchdog Scopa.

Mothibi told the committee that on 17 June 2021, the Special Tribunal granted the SIU an interim preservation order or interdict against Digital Vibes and 11 others for just over R22-million.

"In terms of the interim order, the SIU had to file the review application on or before 29 July 2021. The SIU submitted and filed its review application to the Special Tribunal against Digital Vibes and 29 others to review and set aside the two contracts that were awarded by the national Department of Health (NDoH) to Digital Vibes in respect of the NHI media campaign and the Covid-19 media campaign, and to recover the full value (approximately R150-million) paid out under such unlawful and invalid contract," Mothibi said in his presentation.

He said thus far, the SIU had received R12 179 429.90 from or on behalf of some of the respondents.

Close associates

The health department initially contracted Digital Vibes for the National Health Insurance (NHI) campaign in 2019.

Former health minister Zweli Mkhize allegedly pressured officials to appoint the company owned by his close associates Tahera Mather and Naadhira Mitha.

According to the SIU, Mkhize approved two budget applications for Digital Vibes for NHI communication amounting to R132-million.

On 20 January 2020, an amount of R46 939 550 was approved 52 days after the Digital Vibes service-level agreement (SLA) was signed on 29 November 2019.

On 16 June 2020, R85 502 500 was approved for NHI communication work (from 6 March 2020, Digital Vibes only delivered Covid-19 communication services). This amount was approved 199 days after Digital Vibes' SLA was signed on 29 November 2019.

The SIU determined from the Tender Evaluation Committee (TEC) report, containing the combined scores of all the Bid Evaluation Committee (BEC) members, that one BEC member's score was altered for the second bidder from "3" to "2".

This resulted in the overall score of the second bidder being 59.2%.

If the score was not changed, the second bidder would have "qualified for functionality".

"The end result was that the second bidder failed to meet the required 60% for functionality, disqualifying them from advancing through to the next stage of the tender process. Digital Vibes quoted R141-million, and the second bidder quoted R69-million. It should be noted that Digital Vibes was R72-million (104%) more expensive than the second bidder," Mothibi's presentation read.

South Africa's gross domestic product (GDP) contracted by 1.5% in the third quarter of the year on a quarter-on-quarter seasonally adjudged basis, according to Stats SA.

The largest falls were in trade, manufacturing and agriculture.

The decline brings to an end a period of tentative growth following a record GDP plunge in September last year. The economy grew by 1% in the first quarter and a revised 1.1% in the second quarter of 2021.

On a year-on-year unadjusted basis, GDP grew by 2.9%.

Market watchers had widely predicted a fall in GDP following four successive quarters of growth.

"The looting and unrest in parts of the country in July, coupled with tighter lockdown restrictions, weighed on activity during the early part of the third quarter," said Lara Hodes, an economist at Investec, who predicted a contraction of 1%.

She noted that household spending continued to be constrained by heightened unemployment and rising food and fuel prices.

Economic activity

Stats SA said SA's economic activity is still only near the level it was in the first quarter of 2016, underscoring the economic damage caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and recent recessions.

National Director of Public Prosecutions advocate Shamila Batohi has denied that the resignation of Investigating Directorate (ID) boss advocate Hermione Cronje is a result of "interpersonal relations".

She also denied that the organisation was "in a crisis".

Cronje asked to prematurely step down from her position, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) confirmed last week.

"The NPA is not in a crisis. There is no widespread sabotage of the ID," said Batohi at a media briefing on Monday.

She added that Cronje's resignation was a "culmination of various factors". However, Batohi declined to go into the details that had led to the resignation.

She added, "In high-pressure and high-stakes environments, occasional disagreements are normal."

Cronje was not at the media briefing.

Batohi said there was a need for the director of the ID and herself to have an "aligned vision" on strategy, which needed to be executed with "razor-sharp focus".

Batohi added that Cronje had expressed a wish to vacate her post for some time, and that Batohi had asked her to remain.

However, she later realised it would be "in the interest of all concerned" if Cronje left her office.

Batohi added that leadership changes were normal, saying a new appointment could benefit the ID.

Cronje took up the position almost three years ago in what Batohi called a "tough job in a tough environment".

"Advocate Cronje has played her part and laid the foundation for the ID. We are well placed for the next chapter," said Batohi.

She added that many cases were ready to be enrolled due to the work of the ID.

Batohi said "there is no leadership gap", and a detailed management plan will be drawn up to guide the process of appointing a new director.

President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Monday, while it is not yet known what impact the Omicron variant will have on hospital admissions, government has been preparing hospitals to admit more patients.

He said government is also investigating how it can quickly secure medication for treating Covid-19.

The Omicron variant that was brought to global attention by South African scientists nearly two weeks ago appears to be dominating new infections in most provinces.

Ramaphosa said scientists in the country and around the world are still hard at work to answer critical questions about the new Omicron variant, such as its transmissibility, its progression, whether it causes more severe disease and how effective vaccines will be against it.

“In the coming days and weeks we will know more about the Omicron variant. At the same time, we are keeping a close eye on the rates of infection and hospitalisation,” he said.

He announced that a meeting of the National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC) will soon be convened to review the state of the coronavirus pandemic, explaining that this will enable government to take further measures needed to keep people safe and healthy.

“As the country heads into a fourth wave of Covid-19 infections, we are experiencing a rate of infections that we have not seen since the pandemic started. Over the last week, the number of daily infections has increased five-fold. Nearly a quarter of all Covid-19 tests now come back positive. Compare this to two weeks ago, when the proportion of positive tests was sitting at around 2%,” he said.

URGENCY OF VACCINATION

He explained that as the country enters the fourth wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, and as the country gears up for the festive season, the urgent priority is for more people to get vaccinated.

Scientific evidence shows that vaccination is the most effective means of preventing the spread of new infections, and that vaccines reduce severe illness, hospitalisation and death.

“While the surge in infections is of great concern, we should remember that we anticipated it. Disease modellers in our country have told us that we would likely experience a fourth wave around this time and that it was almost inevitable that new variants of the virus would emerge,” Ramaphosa said.

He added that vaccination is essential for the country’s economic recovery, because as more people are vaccinated more areas of economic activity will be opened up.

“We can do our work and socialise under less stringent restrictions, and our lives can return to some degree of normality. As individuals, we must carefully consider the implications of the risk to ourselves of being unvaccinated and the risk of spreading the infection to our children, parents, relatives, co-workers and those we do not even know,” he said.

The massive surge in infections means that, in addition to vaccination, people need to be far more diligent in reducing their contact with people outside their households.

“I call on all South Africans to go out and get vaccinated without delay. If necessary, take advantage of the Vooma Vaccination Weekends that make it easier to visit the facility closest to you,” said Ramaphosa.