Govt must walk its talk on corruption

“DRAMA as municipal files stolen” (December 4): Well, now we have a situation on our hands where officials have been caught red-handed actually stealing documents in their attempt to carry out their illegal deeds. One wonders for how long this has been going on without their being caught or if somebody knew what was going on but turned a blind eye? Conveniently the guilty parties were on leave and this at a time when a senior ANC official was due to visit to attempt to make things better for those in desperate need of housing. Obviously there were more people involved other than the officials stealing the documents as it is also mentioned that the security cameras were covered. Surely those monitoring the cameras on their screens must have noticed that the cameras were covered?

The security guards should be given medals for carrying out their duties and interfering with this bizarre attempt by officials to steal the documents. The government has on numerous occasions, via the president as well as the deputy president, on national television, promised that corruption within the government will be rooted out, and this is now a perfect opportunity for them to practice what they preach and make an example of the guilty parties in this incident. They must not merely get a slap on the wrist with a warning but a suitable criminal charge must be laid, get them convicted and locked away like any other criminal would be. I feel that it is up to the opposition parties to keep a close watch on this one, monitor the progress with the police and keep the public informed on a regular basis, not only so that taxpayers can see what’s going on, but also those who keep on voting for the ANC in the hope of a better life which is just not happening. Corruption will only stop once guilty parties are treated like criminals instead of being redeployed to other areas where they continue with their trade.