In South Africa’s struggling anti-corruption panorama, management and operational independence are among the many elements enabling the unit’s success.
In a rustic the place anti-corruption enforcement is floundering, outgunned or captured, one company retains delivering good outcomes – the Particular Investigating Unit (SIU).
Getting into its headquarters in Pretoria, it’s straightforward to see how the SIU is completely different from many different authorities companies. The trendy constructing is a beehive of vitality – employees bustle round with objective and path.
The query is why this company stands out from the remainder. New Institute for Safety Research analysis undertaken in cooperation with the SIU seeks to offer solutions.
SIU Head Andy Mothibi tells tales about how he started his profession on the South African Income Service (SARS). As a younger lawyer at SARS, he regarded as much as leaders just like the late Pravin Gordhan, who instilled employees with an ethic of serving a ‘increased objective.’ Mothibi says this legacy lives on on the SIU.
Management is vital for the success of all organisations, however it’s particularly vital for anti-corruption companies. The ‘tone from the highest’ should be brave, motivated, and sincere.
Fulfilling statutory necessities, {qualifications}, and expertise just isn’t sufficient. Leaders should additionally possess superior human relations abilities, resilience and the flexibility to encourage. Mothibi is evidently a robust chief whose employees are keen to comply with him into the troublesome terrain of anti-corruption enforcement.
The SIU has an organisational tradition of excellence, integrity and innovation. Lifelong studying is incentivised, and lots of employees members pursue superior levels part-time.
There are different drivers of the SIU’s success. The unit makes use of civil regulation to recuperate money owed owed to the state. This implies it solely has to show instances on a stability of chances. It is a decrease threshold than the Nationwide Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has to satisfy in felony corruption instances, which is ‘past an inexpensive doubt.’ Civil restoration processes have the potential to recuperate extra property than felony processes.
The SIU has independence over its funds and human sources. It may possibly make its personal selections about who to rent and the way a lot to pay them, and is subsequently profitable at attracting expertise.
That is one other benefit the SIU has over its companions within the battle in opposition to corruption, such because the NPA. The latter is relegated to a programme of the Division of Justice and Constitutional Growth, and topic to its management – a scenario that additionally requires treatment.
One other driver of the SIU’s success is that its investigations are activated solely by presidential proclamations. This implies the unit can not threaten presidents or their allies. This will have protected the SIU from political interference up to now. Nevertheless, as our analysis exhibits, this additionally compromises its independence.
The SIU submits requests for a presidential proclamation to the justice division as a part of a bureaucratic technique of assessing them and forwarding them to the president. This delays the beginning of investigations and gives alternatives for individuals to cover the proceeds of corruption and destroy proof.
A technique to enhance the SIU’s efficiency is to get rid of the ‘intermediary’ and empower the SIU to ship requests for presidential proclamations straight to the presidency.
There are different methods to enhance the SIU’s efficiency. The unit makes suggestions to the federal government establishments it investigates on remedial motion. Its work can be much more efficient had been these suggestions binding, like these of the Public Protector.
The SIU at present faces a money crunch linked to the rising variety of investigations it has been authorised to conduct, mixed with an ineffective funding mannequin. The SIU payments the state establishments it investigates for the work it has finished. Unsurprisingly, many are unwilling to pay. The SIU’s funding mannequin should be modified to permit the unit to maintain a share of funds recovered, as some anti-corruption companies in different international locations do.
Most significantly, the security of SIU personnel and whistleblowers is a severe concern. The protection of employees and witnesses must be a non-negotiable crucial of anti-corruption enforcement in a rustic the place fiscal survival will depend on decreasing corruption, and assassination is commonly used to resolve disputes.
The SIU fills a strategic hole in South Africa’s anti-corruption institutional structure. South Africa doesn’t but have a devoted anti-corruption prevention company, although the United Nations Conference in opposition to Corruption gives that it ought to. With corruption, prevention is healthier than treatmentand over time, the SIU’s work has developed to cowl this terrain.
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This important work, plus the SIU’s popularity for effectiveness, could also be why the president’s Nationwide Anti-Corruption Advisory Council (NACAC) recommends that the SIU develop into South Africa’s new devoted anti-corruption company.
On the Nationwide Anti-Corruption Dialogue on 9-10 December 2024, NACAC Chair Firoz Cachalia proposed a brand new impartial anti-corruption prevention company: the Workplace of Public Integrity. NACAC recommends that the brand new company be a Chapter 9 establishment with comparable ranges of independence to the Public Protector. It ought to take up the SIU with all its present capabilities, enabling the brand new company to begin instantly.
As NACAC nears the top of its time period in August 2025, this advice comes amid elevated allegations about corruption within the felony justice system. We’re in a second when management, independence, and constructing belief in South Africa’s justice establishments matter.
Will President Cyril Ramaphosa seize this second to fulfil his guarantees to determine a brand new anti-corruption company? South Africa’s long-awaited anti-corruption reform second could possibly be simply across the nook.
Colette AshtonAnalysis Advisor, Justice and Violence Prevention Programme, ISS Pretoria
