Why South Africa's leaders should lead by example with lifestyle audits
Integrity activist Devoshum Moodley-Veera says South African leaders must undergo lifestyle audits to restore public trust and combat corruption.
Image: Ayanda Ndamane/ Independent Newspapers
Suppose South Africa is to turn the tide on fraud and corruption. In that case, the country's political leaders, including President Cyril Ramaphosa, need to lead by example and subject themselves to lifestyle audits and be transparent with the process and findings to the public.
This is according to Devoshum Moodley-Veera, an Integrity Activist, PhD Student at the School of Public Leadership and ACCERUS at Stellenbosch University.
Lifestyle audits have become topical after a recently released report revealed that 37% of senior Gauteng provincial government officials failed their mandatory lifestyle audits, designed to expose corruption and financial misconduct.
On the other hand, the National Home Builders Registration Council (NHBRC), an entity of the Department of Human Settlements, said it has referred more than 150 employees for lifestyle audits.
Moodley-Veera describes a lifestyle audit as one of the many tools to combat fraud and corruption in the public sector. It is a detective, preventative, corrective, and monitoring tool.
'Political leaders must have lifestyle audits instituted against them, and be very clear and transparent about their lifestyle audit process. They need to start with the change. If they are calling for lifestyle audits, why are lifestyle audits not done on them as well?
'In the public service, lifestyle audits need to be done throughout. The ministers, deputy ministers, Director-Generals, Members of Parliament, Portfolio Committee Members, Chief Directors, Directors, the deputy directors, the ANC's top six and members of other political parties must also undergo lifestyle audits. Even the president and the deputy president need to go through this,' Moodley-Veera said.
She said this would be a step in the right direction for the state towards regaining public trust, because it is necessary to perform lifestyle audits on individuals entrusted with the resources of 'our' country.
She added that if the government is trying to be transparent, they need to make sure that the whole report is published, so that it can be discussed and people can understand what exactly the lifestyle audit entails, what the findings were, and the issues raised.
'There also needs to be a media briefing, explaining the number of people subjected to lifestyle audits and those found to be wanting. You need to name a shame at times. You can't use secrecy or privacy as an excuse.
'And I do understand that we need to take into account the two laws that we have, which are the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) and the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA). Where there is public interest, you need to ensure transparency in dealing with lifestyle audits,' she said.
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"Even in my lectures, I always say you need to live by ethics. Be the change you want to see, as Mahatma Gandhi put it. It shouldn't be a passing thing that you want to improve ethics in the country and then start implementing lifestyle audits, whistleblowing, unexplained wealth audits, etc. If you're not being ethical when doing your work, it won't change," Moodley-Veera said.
'Corruption is very high in our country. Certain laws limit lifestyle audits, for example, the POPIA, which limits the processing of personal information. So, for example, if a forensic auditor or a forensic investigator or an internal auditor needs to perform a lifestyle audit, there needs to be a lot of processes to try and get consent to actually institute a lifestyle audit, because people claim privacy and defamation issues.
'So, as someone conducting a lifestyle audit, you end up having a number of legal actions against you. You find that PAIA, on the one hand, promotes access to information. But POPIA says no, you can't process personal information. So there are limitations with these two acts when trying to implement lifestyle audits in terms of legislation,' Moodley-Veera said.
She added that public servants generally use these two acts to avoid lifestyle audits in the public service. They say that it is an infringement of their privacy rights. They were not supposed to communicate their income and expenditure and assets, and verification processes.
The consequences for failing lifestyle audits in South Africa are inadequate because they depend on whether the leadership (political or organisational) wants to take action or not. It is very secretive on how you really deal with the findings of a lifestyle audit, she said.
'But then you do get situations from a criminal point of view, where, for example, the SIU does have the power to institute criminal charges against an individual that they found to have not lived according to their means. But that is in cases of a very high level, for example, State Capture. The National Prosecuting Authority also has the power to institute legal action.
'With SARS, which does lifestyle audits on their taxpayers, what happens is they do freeze the individual's assets, they do recoup the assets, but also it is limited. It's limited in the sense that SARS would do their investigation and then it needs to go through a court process to try and institute criminal proceedings,' she said.
South Africa needs to have a single legislation to deal with lifestyle audits, which will be a blanket approach for the public and private sectors. She said the private sector currently does lifestyle audits at its discretion.
'There actually should not be any thresholds, for example, in the legislation, you must not even say that if you are an organisation of more than 50 people, then only you submit or institute lifestyle audits. It needs to be for everyone. For example, your big retailers, small shops, etc, because corruption comes in different forms and ways. So if you are trying to address this, you need to use a balanced approach and be consistent in dealing with this,' Moodley-Veera said.
The Guide to Implement Lifestyle Audits in the Public Service, signed by the then Minister of Public Service and Administration, Senzo Mchunu, came into effect on April 1, 2021, and mandates lifestyle audits for National and Provincial Government Departments, in line with the Public Service Regulations of 2016.
However, Moodley-Veera said it is not an Act, but a directive that guides public service, public servants to undergo lifestyle audits, and the role players involved. But it is only a directive, not legally binding.
The second biennial report recently released by the Gauteng Ethics Advisory Council (GEAC) revealed that nearly 37% of senior Gauteng provincial government officials failed their mandatory lifestyle audits, designed to expose corruption and financial misconduct. Over 150 engaged in illegal business dealings, despite legal prohibitions, in key departments like Education, Sport, Health, and Infrastructure Development.
Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi has since welcomed the report and said the provincial government will respond in detail within 14 days after assessing and engaging with the findings. Opposition parties have also demanded that action be taken.
Alec Moemi, Director-General for the Department of Human Settlements, this week told the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Human Settlements that over 150 employees at the NHBRC have been referred for lifestyle audits, requiring them to explain their financial income.
He said the audit started in 2024 after a directive by former minister Mmamoloko Kubayi across the department's entities.
The SIU has completed the audit at the Community Schemes Ombud Service. The audits were not finalised and were not ready for presentation to the portfolio committee. Phases one and two of the audits of 82 executives and management personnel were completed at NHBRC. Phase 2 of the audit involves 152 employees being interviewed to provide explanations, he said.
gcwalisile.khanyile@inl.co.za
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