The biennial report of the Gauteng Ethics Advisory Council (GEAC) for 2025 has restated what the Democratic Alliance (DA) has been exposing about corruption, maladministration, non-compliance with relevant legislation and regulations and ethical violations severely affecting the delivery of services to residents of Gauteng.
The DA Gauteng demands that Premier Lesufi act swiftly to address these serious issues highlighted in this report. Moreover, when responding to this report in 14 days, we demand timelines for the implementation of corrective measures and commit to providing regular updates on the progress of the recommendations.
The GEAC report, which is released every two years, highlights the pitfalls that this government is facing. It paints a grim picture of how many departments constantly fail to comply with the Integrity Management Framework, policy and Public Service Regulation of 2016.
Regarding lifestyle audits, 37% of high-ranking officials had either been categorised as high risk or failed the lifestyle audit. Furthermore, the following departments have not complied with the Ethics Risk Assessment and Ethics Implementation Management Plan: Community Safety, Education and Roads and Transport.
The following departments only partially implemented fraud detection risk management: Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Department of Health, Department of Infrastructure Development and Department of Social Development.
Furthermore, in the Gauteng Department of Education, the GEAC report found that 124 officials doing business with the state, in the Health Department 16, Human Settlements two, Infrastructure Development nine and Roads and Transport one.
Everything highlighted in this report occurred under Premier Lesufi’s watch and has done nothing to address it, yet he claims to be running a clean and transparent government. Gauteng residents have heard enough of Lesufi’s lies and, they deserve a government committed to spending their hard-earned taxes transparently, while ensuring value for money.
A DA-led provincial government in Gauteng would have identified these challenges and in the process of addressing them instead of waiting for the GEAC report to implement the recommendations. We would not allow this maleficence and take a zero-tolerance approach to officials doing business with the government. In addition, disciplinary action will not take longer than 90 days.
Premier Lesufi is known for ignoring report recommendations and shielding corrupt officials and politicians. The DA Gauteng will not let Lesufi escape his responsibility. We will hold him accountable for implementing the GEAC report recommendations.