The spokesperson for the department, Moses Mushi, says the ministers of Public Service and Administration, Police, Justice, and Correctional Services agreed to establish a multi-departmental team to ensure the implementation of the prohibition on government officials to conduct business with the state. 

As part of the team’s first focus, they decided to analyse the list of 1539 cases identified by the Auditor-General in April last year. They then put together a list of priority cases and one of these cases involved a Free State government official.

Although the details of the case are not known yet, it seems the official got paid about R131m for his side hustle, in what is believed to be a tender that he got from a government department.

Mushi says a list of ten cases were identified to be investigated. Most cases involve national departments, while the other two are provincial cases – one in the Free State and one in KwaZulu-Natal. Two cases involving police officers who were doing business with the state have been in court last week. One of the officers was sentenced to a R10 000 fine or 18 months' imprisonment, half of which was suspended on certain conditions. The other one was sentenced to a R5000 fine or 12 months' imprisonment suspended for 5 years.

Director-General for the Department of Public Service and Administration, Yoliswa Makhasi, said the work that has been done by the Public Administration Ethics, Integrity and Disciplinary Technical Assistance Unit in conjunction with the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and the South African Police Service (SAPS) is finally starting to pay off. This is after two police members were charged and convicted for conducting business with the State.

A police officer from Mpumalanga was sentenced on 11 November 2021 to R10 000 or 18 months' imprisonment, half of which was suspended on certain conditions. He has paid R 5 000 fine. Earlier on, in October 2021, another police officer was also convicted after conducting business with the State, and was sentenced to R5000 or 12 months' imprisonment, wholly suspended for five years on certain conditions.

“Public servants are reminded once more that it is a criminal offense for public service employees to conduct business with the State. The court judgments in both cases send a message to prevent public service employees from channelling tenders to their own pockets and to prevent double-dipping from State coffers – in particular by those public servants appointed in national and provincial departments but continue to earn remuneration as board members of public entities and state-owned companies,” said Mkhasi.

The department says the criminalisation of employees conducting business with the State was necessitated by the increase in the number of employees who were possibly conducting business with the State, which increased steadily since 2017. In April 2020, the number of government officials doing business with the state was 1539. The immediate focus of this Task Team was to prioritise the top 10 cases, and to ensure the top cases are processed in the criminal justice system.

Meanwhile the number of employees registered on the Central Supply Database had decreased to 484 by January 2021 and by the end of July 2021, it further declined to 118.

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