Former Tourism Minister Lindiwe Sisulu says the cancer of corruption in the country must be removed so that the money could be saved and used for valuable projects.
The money lost through corruption could be used to build houses and schools.
She said the Public Administration Management Bill, which was passed years ago to crackdown on corruption in the public service, was meant to remove the cancer of corruption in the public service.
The law was meant to prevent public servants from doing business with the state.
At the time it was passed, Sisulu was the Minister of Public Service and Administration.
Sisulu, who was delivering the Walter Sisulu memorial lecture in Cape Town, organised by the Robben Island Museum, said those who spent many years imprisoned on the island had sacrificed their lives for freedom.
She said the levels of corruption must be brought under control.
When the Public Administration Management Bill was passed, the intention was to ensure that every cent used by the state does not go down the drain.
She said the money, stolen through corruption, could be used to build more houses, schools and clinics.
“I took the opportunity when I was Minister of Public Service and Administration, and I want to thank Enver Daniels (the former chief state law adviser) for helping me through this, to put together an anti-corruption Bill, the public administration management bill. Central to that was to try and create an anti-corruption culture in the public service, and we all felt we could create this culture in the public service. Imagine how much money we would save that would go to valuable projects. Enver and I sat up night and day putting this bill together. By the time this bill was put out in the public domain, the word corruption had been removed, which we spent two years to put into this bill to create a particular culture, was gone. But the essence of it remains.
“I am hoping, in the National School of Government, this is something they teach so that as we move on as a society, we can remove the cancer of corruption, particularly from the public service. If you can count how much money goes down the drain, imagine how many houses and schools we would have built,” said Sisulu.
She said Robben Island had been a symbol of resistance as many people spent time there.
Some went to the island at a young age.
The struggles that were fought by South Africans should not be in vain.
She said she has asked the new Minister of Tourism, Patricia de Lille, to visit Robben Island to make it a living site of how much sacrifices people made for freedom and democracy in the county.
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