President Cyril Ramaphosa says he was concerned about delays in finalising lifestyle audits on members of his Cabinet.
Ramaphosa said there were various processes that were undertaken and this has caused delays.
He announced lifestyle audits on ministers in 2018, but he told parliament on Tuesday, during a question and answer session, that this process was not yet complete.
He said he was hopeful that it will be finalised soon, but he did not indicate when this would be.
“It should not have been as long as it is, but the intent is there. This process does not focus on any member of the executive solely. It focuses on all of us. With regard to timeframe, as I said in my (earlier) reply, I see this process being completed shortly. Once it has, it will be further reported on by the director-general,” said Ramaphosa.
He said lifestyle audits are intrusive in nature, but they will have to get the information required to ensure that it was done.
Members of political parties were not happy that this process has dragged on for so long.
It should not have taken this long, political parties said. Mkhuleko Hlengwa of the IFP, John Steenhuisen of the DA and Wayne Thring of the ACDP said they were concerned that this process has not been finalised after so many years.
They said the public needs to know how the government planned to conclude the process.
Ramaphosa said this would be completed soon. He said they were striving to have a clean government.
“In the end they are a good governance measure that is aimed at ensuring that all of us who serve our people as members of the executive do so with diligence, with integrity and with an adherence to morals that our people would expect of us.
“That process is under way. We expected that we would like to to get to a point where we have clean government, where we have leaders in government who are going to be able to demonstrate that they are not in government to serve their own personal interests, but the interests of our people,” said Ramaphosa.
He said they understand the frustration by political parties, but they need to do everything by the book.
They did not want to flout processes as the intention was to ensure they get things right.
Director-General in the Presidency Phindile Baleni was driving this process.
But once everything has been finalised this will be announced.
Politics