Parliament’s Standing Committee on the Auditor-General convened virtually this morning to sharpen its focus on accountability and consequence management, with a particular spotlight on the slow pace of prosecutions involving public funds.
The committee received a briefing from the Hawks on progress made in cases referred by the Auditor-General. The session comes amid ongoing concerns over corruption, wasteful expenditure, and the sluggish processing of cases involving public money.
MPs are also expected to adopt the committee’s annual performance plan and consider an oversight report from recent engagements.
The discussion follows testimony earlier this week at the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry, where Hawks Lieutenant Colonel Angal Seola testified on Thursday about political interference, particularly in key cases.
Ntokozo Khumalo, reporting from Parliament, noted that the committee will be digging into how much of a hindrance that political interference has been to finalising investigations.
“It’s now an issue of once those investigations or those issues land on the Hawks’ table, how quickly can it work through those investigations to see prosecution and consequence management,” Khumalo said.
The committee is also expected to examine whether the institution has sufficient resources to see cases through to prosecution, so that South Africans can gain confidence that government is getting to grips with corruption and fraud.
The session comes a day after President Cyril Ramaphosa answered oral questions in the National Assembly, where safety and crime were key issues, with MPs pressing for the integrity of institutions such as the Hawks to be protected.