It’s been less than two months since parliamentary watchdog the standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) elected former newspaper editor and Rise Mzansi chair Songezo Zibi as its head. It’s been a stop-start process, though, after the rush of passing several departmental budget votes, the induction to the seventh parliament and then a short recess. However, Zibi tells the FM it’s all systems go.
He promises to bring accountability and transparency to government spending. Scopa is expected to play a crucial role in ensuring that taxpayer money is used well after years of mismanagement and corruption within different government departments.
The committee’s mandate is to ensure effective, efficient and economical use of public finances by enhancing transparency and accountability. It will hold the executive, constitutional institutions and other public bodies to account.
A few days after chairing his first Scopa meeting, Zibi told the FM that several briefings, including with the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) and auditor-general (AG), will take place this week to understand how its work is linked with parliament and the proclamation process. “Members have come with no baggage and we have to work together and shed [our] partisan political party memberships,” he says.
The MK Party objected to Zibi’s nomination as chair because it claimed his party is a member of the government of national unity (GNU). Scopa has traditionally had a chair from the opposition party. Zibi shrugged off this criticism, saying effective oversight is crucial. “My first loyalty is to the mandate of this committee and I expect all of us will do the same and work,” he told MPs after his election in July.
Scopa has four permanent members and one alternate member from the ANC, two permanent members from the DA and MK, one permanent member and an alternate member from the EFF, and one permanent member from other opposition parties.
Zibi knows the task is not easy, especially with the weak balance sheets of the country’s state-owned enterprises (SOEs). “The balance sheets of the [SOEs] are really weak. SAA, Eskom, Prasa [the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa] and Transnet are weak because of the corruption and mismanagement ... the bad leadership culture within, and the financial leakages they cause. The government has no money and as a shareholder, it does not have the money to strengthen the balance sheet, and the boards are expected to repair the balance sheet.”
He says: “I can’t scream at a board chair, but it’s also working through the issues in that way.”
Zibi will also invite all the major SOE boards and CEOs for frank engagements. In April 2022, a screaming match between former Eskom board member Busisiwe Mavuso and then Scopa chair Mkhuleko Hlengwa ended with Mavuso leaving the meeting; the relationship affected the committee’s working relationship. Zibi says he does not want an adversarial relationship with boards. “You have to hold people to account, but you cannot scream at them.”
He argues that previous chairs were less effective because of the ANC’s majority; this time, it’s different. “The ANC will no longer have dominance. [It] will have to convince other parties and the people in the committee, which includes a former internal auditor,” he says.
The weeks ahead are packed. This week the committee will meet the SIU on current cases and their rand value, followed by a briefing by the chief procurement officer. MPs will also be briefed on unauthorised, irregular and fruitless expenditure and supply chain management processes as well as deviations and expansions.
Zibi says Scopa has also raised concerns about several departments and state entities that do not table their annual reports, those that fail to meet the deadline for tabling annual reports, and those that continue to receive disclaimers.
He says the committee will also devise a mechanism to ensure that those with financial management challenges and governance issues receive specific attention to help them improve their performance. The committee will continue to work closely with AG Tsakani Maluleke.
In November, Maluleke said only one of the country’s 19 biggest SOEs had received a clean audit.
Zibi is also engaging with the AG on what he says are the “root causes of wasteful expenditure, all the way to the quality of accounting officers and how they are appointed”.
“We have to solve this if the appointments of officials are not robust. You can scream as much as you want and you will end up with the same issue,” he says.
Former Scopa chair Themba Godi, who headed the committee for almost 14 years between 2005 and May 2019, says MPs were united in highlighting the rot in parliament and worked without any political friction during this time. “We were prepared to back each other when it came to the questioning of officials,” he tells the FM.
He says there was frustration, but all the issues of corruption within SOEs that were raised during the Zondo commission had been done so by the committee, which was largely ignored. “The rot we saw during the Zuma years started earlier and it was impunity that drove the corruption we raised. And there were no consequences for it.”
Godi says the committee did hold the executive to account and Zuma was under scrutiny. “Scopa was at the forefront of pushing the Sassa [social security] grants to be taken away from Net1 to the Post Office, but they bungled it.
“Eskom, the SABC, corruption at the water boards — 90% of the issues had to do with tender irregularities. The AG reports raised [this] without tangible action from officials. Those were issues we had raised the alarm bells about, but were ignored. We were shouting in the wilderness.”
Analysts recognise the work that former chairs such as Godi and Hlengwa undertook but was not carried through, says Sanusha Naidu, a political analyst at the Institute for Global Dialogue.
“The work of Scopa should filter through all committees and at times it was disconnected. For instance, when issues were raised about corruption at the water boards, how did it filter through the ministry or department of water affairs?”
Naidu says Zibi must ensure the work of Scopa is effectively integrated into all parliamentary committees to prevent issues from being overlooked or ignored.
She hopes the work of the committee doesn’t remain in a silo, and that under the seventh administration there will be more connectivity between the various departments. “I think there needs to be more clarity on how Scopa will work in a much more collective and cohesive manner, and it has to connect the dots and find a way to be cohesive as a committee. You cannot have a silo role; there has to be an anchor.
“The dominance of the ANC and the mindset of impunity have now become so ingrained. The new committee will have to ensure all GNU members, regardless of political party affiliation, are held to account.”
The dominance of the ANC and the mindset of impunity have now become so ingrained. The new committee will have to ensure all GNU members, regardless of political party affiliation, are held to account
— Sanusha Naidu
In the legacy report compiled by the sixth parliament, Hlengwa, who chaired Scopa between 2019 and 2024, quoted Charles Dickens: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.” His literary reference serves as a reminder of the challenges faced during that time, and the continued need for accountability and transparency.
In the 60-page report, Hlengwa argued that the committee made significant strides with its key focus areas which included enhanced collaboration with key stakeholders such as law enforcement, anticorruption and forensic investigation, as well as litigation agencies such as the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, the National Prosecuting Authority and the SIU.
Hlengwa says enhanced collaboration is paramount for improving accountability, consequence management and the reduction in delays of prosecutions, and the recovery of state funds.
He also recommends that the committee exercise its powers and authority to summon any person. This includes ministers and officials who have followed the implementation of the Public Audit Amendment Act, which gives the AG’s office powers to act against those who have misused public funds. Among other recommendations, he wants the committee to follow up on outstanding unauthorised expenditure reports from departments.
Naidu says she hopes Zibi will ask awkward questions and shine the light in dark spaces at municipalities, lighting a fire under the feet of tardy executives.
“[Scopa] also has to make sure [there is] more co-ordination with its work and other avenues of oversight in parliament structures and, lastly, continue to maintain that parliament [has] separation of powers, have much more cohesive engagements, and [not] see parliament as part of the GNU. This will ensure accountability and transparency in government spending, ultimately leading to better governance and service delivery for the people.”
Zibi says he is aware of the enormous task ahead, but is up to “being the servant of the people”.
He says he will request a meeting with Deputy President Paul Mashatile to “try to hammer out how exactly oversight will be conducted, how funds are spent and which ministers will be assigned and responsible for answering specific questions from Scopa”.
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