I’m not sure whether we should be delighted or downright miserable.

On the one hand Willie Hofmeyr and his Specialised Investigations Unit, working with the National Audit Task Team and the Department of Human Settlements, has unearthed corruption worth billions of rands and has prosecuted over a thousand people.

That’s a good thing.

On the other, corruption is so widespread and so endemic that to stamp it out seems virtually impossible because there are just so many people out there who will dream up ingenious schemes to cheat somebody (anybody even their own elected government) rather than do an honest day’s work.

That’s a bad thing.

My question is which of these two is dominant in our society? I fear it’s the latter and that makes me question the sustainable future of this country in an emerging market where foreign investment is crucial if we want to fund development, improve our living standards and create a competitive economy that can survive.

Let’s look at some of the facts that Willie Hofmeyr and his team of terriers have unearthed:

- Dodgy contracts worth R2bn spread among 20 contractors, each one worth about R100m. That’s big money in the property market and represents thousands of houses. It also suggests that there are some major companies involved and major companies often seem so respectable on the surface but may be rotten to the core on the inside;

- More than 1 900 government officials crooked the housing subsidy system and so far 1 297 of them have been successfully prosecuted. While these public servants are now facing disciplinary action they are nevertheless bound to be part of the public servants strike, and will benefit from the current wage negotiations underway right now. I suppose that’s what happens when you work for the government.

- About R44m has been recovered from provincial and municipal officials. That’s a lot of money to siphon-off and spend on living the high life. And that’s just the money that’s been recovered. What about the cash that hasn’t been and never will be?

- Some 40 individual contractors have been restricted from competing for government contracts. Frankly, those restrictions mean nothing like all cowboy builders, these ‘restricted’ contractors will start a new front company, appoint a few dummy directors and trade through a new company with a new identity. Restricting cowboy builders does nothing to solve the problem. Jailing them does.

These are some of significant achievements that Tokyo Sexwale, the Minister of Human Settlements, along with Willie Hofmeyr, and his team at the Special Investigations Unit along with the National Audit Task Team need to be congratulated for.

But what we are seeing in the Department of Human Settlements is, I’m sure, just the very tip of South Africa’s corruption iceberg.

Let’s look at some of the other events that emerged this week.

A conveyancing attorney in KwaZulu-Natal has been charged with 142 counts of fraud and theft and is awaiting prosecution. Two other criminal cases of fraud were registered with police in that province against a contractor and an engineer who allegedly defrauded the Human Settlements department of R10-million.

Meanwhile in Pretoria, two attorneys, Peet Viljoen and Edwin Maringa were arrested in connection with the fraudulent sale of prime Johannesburg municipal land belonging to the Johannesburg Property Company (JPC).

The deals included Norscot Koppies and the Kingfisher Nature Reserve in Fourways, Johannesburg. Moreover, three women were arrested with Viljoen and Maringa. Two women, Ronel van Vuuren and Anele van der Berg work in Viljoen’s office. The third woman, Dorah Madisa works for JPC. The women have been released on bail of R5 000 each.

We don’t know what the courts will find in regard to the allegations against the attorneys, their employees or the officials within the JPC and we’ll have to wait for the judgment before reaching any conclusions.

What is clear to me, though, is that there is collusion between government officials and the private sector and this is born out by the evidence that has been amassed so far in this two-year investigation into corruption and fraud in the housing sector.

And its not restricted to insignificant issues such as stealing some paper for a child’s school project. It’s major contractors, major deals worth millions and billions of rands. And it’s your money and mine that is being thieved into the bargain.

Worst of all, these are just the cases that have been exposed. What about the thousands more that haven’t been discovered? What about all the other corruption in those government departments that have not yet been scrutinized by the Special Investigations Unit or the National Audit Task Team?

And, of course, this all leads back to one thing: people devising schemes to make easy money without doing the work.

It’s that psyche that, for me anyway, is the crippling cancer that is killing our country. It’s the cancer that will choke development, halt sustainable prosperity, create hatred, xenophobia and social disharmony throughout the land. For the corruption cancer extends into every facet of life here, affecting all investment from the value of our property to the sustainability of our currency.

I’ve often said that South Africa needs a moral transformation and that transformation begins with the individual and not with a process. But it’s impossible to legislate for morality because so many people are so different and what is immoral for you might be perfectly moral for me.

So we legislate for what is right and wrong.

And surely we can all agree that stealing from the government is wrong; undertaking to work to a specification and ignoring that specification is wrong; building houses that will fall down is wrong.

If a contract says that you will do X, Y and Z and then be paid, surely everyone can see that it’s wrong to just do X and Z and leave out Y altogether and still get paid?

But thousands of ingenious people are finding ways to cheat the system because they feel they can – and because they feel they’re entitled to do so as well.

I hope that the investigations into the housing market will unearth every single crook that exists in every single sphere of government and the private sector. But I also hope that the government, the National Prosecuting Authority, the Public Service Administration (PSA) (the union representing public servants) and every other individual union and voluntary association will back these investigations.

Just as I hope that each union takes specific action against its members who are guilty of fraud and corruption and that each union will now encourage whistle-blowing members who know what’s going on and do nothing about it.

Because, as the evidence amassed by the SIU and the NATT clearly shows, corruption and fraud don’t happen in isolation. A whole team of people are willingly and actively participating in the fraud and that team is benefitting from their illegal activities to your detriment and mine.

We need to stop that.

So if anyone reading this has any information about corruption or fraud in the housing market – or in any other government department for that matter – blow the whistle on them. Tell someone about it.

And if you don’t know who to talk to, try the Special Investigations Unit. They’ll soon tell you.

*Hartdegen writes a regular column for Property24.com. The content of his columns constitutes his personal opinion and doesn’t pretend to be facts or advice. Contact him at paddy@neomail.co.za.

Readers' Comments Have a comment about this article? Email us now.

Corruption always starts at the top. Zuma's financial advisor was giving a 15yr sentence and served a few months and is free. The general public see's this as a ticket to do the same and I don't blame them. Zuma needs to show that he can be a honest leader and prosecute his friends and slowly work down to the clerk in the street. Durban is seen by many to completely corrupt with many of Zuma's friends and advisers living there. – Anonymous

As a start we should at least name the offending companies involved in the 20 contracts as well as the “restricted” contractors and give details of the contracts. I would expect to see quite a few of the big contractors involved.

I’m involved in many projects for my company and come across this type of corrupt behaviour virtually on a daily basis. We have a well-established forensic investigations unit which we use continually to screen applications for inclusion on our list of approved vendors and contractors and you would be amazed at just who has done what in the recent past! – Mike Turner

You are so right but reporting corruption is problematic. There is a very real change of being killed and I am not being melodramatic. Many of those tasked with investigating corruption are themselves rotten. – Lloyd Macklin

The scourge of corruption is far more costly than just what has been stolen (our taxes) by these public serpents, it is also the cost (our taxes again) to institute legal action.

The reason corruption is so widespread and so endemic is because there are no checks and balances in place and no accountability. Once found guilty at great expense (our taxes) there is a slap on the wrist and the perpetrator is transferred to another department!

Until there is forfeiture of all possessions and real jail time this will never go away. – Frank