Anti-corruption hotline: Hello..anybody there?

Gawd, this New! Improved! South Africa!™ does test one's patience. They put on the pretence of "fighting crime" knowing that will keep the sheeple quiet. As for doing anything, well then, that would take actual wek and as far as I can recall, affirmative action appointees are not there to wek.

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The Democratic Alliance has described as a disgrace allegations that the Gauteng Provincial Government has responded to only seven of 195 corruption cases reported to the National Anti-Corruption Hotline in the 2007/2008 financial year.

"In the last three years, only 122 out of 1,000 Hotline referrals have been dealt with, which is really pathetic. "It is a small wonder that little progress is made in fighting corruption in Gauteng Provincial departments," Gauteng's DA leader, Jack Bloom, said.

In a letter addressed to the newly sworn-in Gauteng premier Paul Mashatile, Bloom blamed the Gauteng Shared Services Centre (GSSC) and asked for Mashatile's intervention in the matter.

"The Public Service Commission (PSC) informs me that in Gauteng, all the Hotline tip-offs are sent to the Gauteng Shared Services Centre, which is notoriously inefficient and is also rife with corruption allegations that have never been examined," he said.

Bloom's letter to Mashatile follows the recent Annual Report tabled by the PSC in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature. "There is clearly a problem here that needs urgent attention in order to ensure a clean administration," Bloom said.

Mashatile's spokesman was not immediately available for comment.

The government's national anti-corruption hotline was launched in 2004 in a bid to allow South Africans to report fraudulent activities within the public services sector. Reported corruption activities were to be reported centrally and then be re-directed to the relevant departments.

In Gauteng, incidents reported to the hotline 0800-701-701 are first directed to the GSSC before reaching the relevant departments.

"We are the only province doing that and I think reports get stuck at the GSSC," Bloom said.