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ifestyle audits - better late than never

26 June 2019

The Democratic Alliance (DA) in the Northern Cape welcomes the commitment by Premier Zamani Saul to implement DA policy by undergoing a lifestyle audit and imposing similar audits on his cabinet, senior government officials as well as government staff employed in Supply Chain Management.

While this is long overdue, it is most definitely a step in the right direction if the current government is indeed as serious as the DA about combatting out of control corruption, particularly within the Northern Cape government.

Lifestyle audits have long since been a tool employed by the DA-run Western Cape government to fight corruption. As such, I, as the Provincial Leader of the DA, have also pushed for lifestyle audits to be conducted in the Northern Cape since 2011, when I made a public announcement indicating that I would gladly welcome a lifestyle audit to be conducted into my financial affairs. I was unfortunately never taken up on my offer.

At the time, I also asked then ANC Premier Hazel Jenkins at a house sitting, whether she would set the example by allowing SARS to conduct lifestyle audits on MPLs. In her reply, she indicated that such audits shouldn’t only be conducted on MPL’s but rather on everyone, if there is a need. However, she said there wasn’t a need for such audits at the time.

Clearly, she was wrong.

Politicians and officials should not be living like kings at the expense of the people that they are supposed to serve. Only by conducting lifestyle audits on this sector, will we know for sure whose wealth was legitimately amassed, and who got rich quick through bypassing supply chain processes or hooking up with tenderpreneurs.

Just think how many millions could already have been spared from finding its way into the pockets of connected individuals, if the ANC had listened to the DA earlier, and placed lifestyle audits above lavish lifestyles eight years ago. But better late than never.

Implementing more checks and balances with regards to politicians and public servants who do business with government has become essential, given the climate of corruption in this country.

It is for this reason that I, as a Member of the Provincial Legislature (MPL), once again avail not only myself, but also my DA colleagues in the legislature, to undergo lifestyle audits.

Corruption is wrong on every level and wherever it is found to be eating state funds intended for service delivery, politicians and officials must be held accountable.

Issued by Andrew Louw, DA Northern Cape Provincial Leader, 26 June 2019