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UFS Thought-Leader Series - Specialisation needed to properly fight SA’s corruption pandemic

05 May 2021 | Story André Damons and Dr Nitha Ramnath

South Africa does not have the specialisation to fight corruption. There is a need to determine what sort of specialisation is required in order to properly address the kind of corruption that is starting to look like it is endemic in South Africa.

This is according to Adv Hermione Cronje, Head of the Investigating Directorate (ID) at the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), who was one of the panellists on Tuesday (4 May 2021) during the University of the Free State (UFS) webinar on corruption. The webinar, titled Corruption in South Africa: the endemic pandemic, is the second in the 2021 UFS Thought-Leader Series.

The rest of the panel comprised experts such as Adv Ouma Rabaji-Rasethaba, Deputy National Director of Public Prosecutions (NPA); Adv Paul Hoffman, Director: Institute for Accountability in Southern Africa, and campaigning as Accountability Now; Justice Dennis Davis, former Judge at the High Court of Cape Town and Judge President of the Competition Appeal Court; and Prof John Mubangizi, Dean: Faculty of Law, University of the Free State. Prof Francis Petersen, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the UFS, was the facilitator.

The specialisation needed

Adv Cronje said she agrees that specialisation, resources, training, and independence are critical. “We need specialisation in digital forensics. We have the advantage that, in the Zondo Commission, we have created a digital forensics capability that I believe is almost second to none. That capability now needs to be put at the disposal of law enforcement,” said Adv Cronje.

According to her, training is needed on the basics. There have not been many major corruption prosecutions in South Africa for many years, and there is not a cadre of skilled, big-case corruption prosecutors.

“We know it’s a slow and very frustrating process. The system has been very broken, and I think the steps we are taking to build and rebuild will bear fruit, but not in a spectacular way that we all hoped for. But let's discuss the real issue; let’s discuss how to resource, how to make trials happen more speedily. Why not have a corruption court?”

Co-locating to better fight crime

Adv Rabaji-Rasethaba said the NPA has capacity and capability challenges in terms of fighting crime but is reorganising and rebuilding to ensure that it is on top of fighting corruption. “The Anti-Corruption Task Team (ACTT), which is the law enforcement agencies coming together to fight corruption, has also been hallowed out. But the good news there is that we are in the process of rebuilding it,” said Adv Rabaji-Rasethaba.

According to her, they also have a module called Fusion Centre, and are currently working from the Financial Intelligence Centre in Centurion to make sure that the fighting of corruption is fast-tracked. This module was established when COVID-19 corruption started.

“We've now agreed that the NPA and the DPCI need to co-locate with the Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU) to the special investigating unit in DPCI, which is tracing assets, so that we can fast-track recovery of the proceeds of crime. We are also capacitating the NPA, particularly the specialised units such as the Specialised Commercial Crime Unit (SCCU) and the AFU, to make sure that we get all the right skills we need to be fit for purpose,” said Adv Rabaji-Rasethaba.

The problem of corruption persists

Prof Mubangizi said even though South Africa has an adequate and sufficient legal framework to deal with corruption, the problem persists because corruption has become institutionalised, systemic, and normalised. “And when something becomes institutionalised, systemic, and normalised, it becomes endemic,” said Prof Mubangizi. A second reason, he said, is that our political leadership is largely responsible, as well as the lack of political accountability.

“I think the law does not bite hard enough. It's one thing to have the laws, but it's a completely different thing to have it property and effectively enforced. This brings into question the role of law enforcement agencies. Unfortunately, most South Africans do not trust that these agencies are able to bring corrupt officials to book. Some of the members of these agencies are assumed corrupt themselves, and the agencies are perceived to be compromised, captured, and toothless,” said Prof Mubangizi.

Remedies through SARS

Judge Davis questioned why there is no real moral authority in the country. “We need to look to our political structures.”

On discussing the type of remedies that can be put in place to combat corruption, Judge Davis indicated that South Africa has enough institutions. “The NPA should be strengthened and should also reach out to the expertise in the country, which can assist in this regard. I still believe that the best way of dealing with corruption is through the use of the South African Revenue Service (SARS) to hold people accountable. If we can expedite these cases and actually find people guilty of tax fraud, we hold them to account and get back significant sums of money,” said Judge Davis.

Need for Chapter Nine institution

Adv Hoffman emphasised that the culture of impunity has started and grown since the Scorpions were dissolved. “There is a need for the creation of a Chapter Nine institution that answers to Parliament and is specialised, trained, independent, resourced with security of tenure (STIRS), and compliant as the best way forward in the fight against corruption,” said Adv Hoffman. One of the main jobs of the Chapter Nine institution would be to address the recovery of the loot of state capture.

Prosecute and convict

In his closing remarks, Prof Petersen said what he took from the webinar is coordination and capacity building – making sure we build the capacity of specifically the NPA, but also other organs of the state. “The second thing is training. This is something we need to talk about, because other people – besides universities –could also play a role. The task of the university is actually to develop the leaders of tomorrow; to say – this is what society should look like,” said Prof Petersen.

Accordingly, it is very important to make sure that we prosecute and convict. “This seems to be the most critical part, because if we get it wrong, the credibility of the whole system is under question. Citizens should also come in and play a crucial role.”

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Inaugural lecture: Prof Robert Bragg, Dept. of Microbial, Biochemical and Food Biotechnology

2006-05-17

Attending the inaugural lecture were in front from the left Prof Robert Bragg (lecturer at the Department of Microbial, Biochemical and Food Biotechnology) and Frederick Fourie (Rector and Vice-Chancellor). At the back from the left were Prof James du Preez (Departmental Chairperson: Department of Microbial, Biochemical and Food Biotechnology) and Prof Herman van Schalkwyk (Dean: Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences). Photo: Stephen Collett

A summary of an inaugural lecture delivered by Prof Robert Bragg at the University of the Free State:

CONTROL OF INFECTIOUS AVIAN DISEASES – LESSONS FOR MAN?

Prof Robert R Bragg
Department of Microbial, Biochemical and Food Biotechnology
University of the Free State

“Many of the lessons learnt in disease control in poultry will have application on human medicine,” said Prof Robert Bragg, lecturer at the University of the Free State’s (UFS) Department of Microbial, Biochemical and Food Biotechnology during his inaugural lecture.

Prof Bragg said the development of vaccines remains the main stay of disease control in humans as well as in avian species. Disease control can not rely on vaccination alone and other disease-control options must be examined.

“With the increasing problems of antibiotic resistance, the use of disinfection and bio security are becoming more important,” he said.

“Avian influenza (AI) is an example of a disease which can spread from birds to humans. Hopefully this virus will not develop human to human transmission,” said Prof Bragg.

According to Prof Bragg, South Africa is not on the migration route of water birds, which are the main transmitters of AI. “This makes South Africa one of the countries less likely to get the disease,” he said.

If the AI virus does develop human to human transmission, it could make the 1918 flu pandemic pale into insignificance. During the 1918 flu pandemic, the virus had a mortality rate of only 3%, yet more than 50 million people died.

Although the AI virus has not developed human-to-human transmission, all human cases have been related to direct contact with infected birds. The mortality rate in humans who have contracted this virus is 67%.

“Apart from the obvious fears for the human population, this virus is a very serious poultry pathogen and can cause 100% mortality in poultry populations. Poultry meat and egg production is the staple protein source in most countries around the world. The virus is currently devastating the poultry industry world-wide,” said Prof Bragg.

Prof Bragg’s research activities on avian diseases started off with the investigation of diseases in poultry. “The average life cycle of a broiler chicken is 42 days. After this short time, they are slaughtered. As a result of the short generation time in poultry, one can observe changes in microbial populations as a result of the use of vaccines, antibiotics and disinfectants,” said Prof Bragg.

“Much of my research effort has been directed towards the control of infectious coryza in layers, which is caused by the bacterium Avibacterium paragallinarum. This disease is a type of sinusitis in the layer chickens and can cause a drop in egg product of up to 40%,” said Prof Bragg.

The vaccines used around the world in an attempt to control this disease are all inactivated vaccines. One of the most important points is the selection of the correct strains of the bacterium to use in the vaccine.

Prof Bragg established that in South Africa, there are four different serovars of the bacterium and one of these, the serovar C-3 strain, was believed to be unique to Southern Africa. He also recently discovered this serovar for the first time in Israel, thus indicating that this serovar might have a wider distribution than originally believed.

Vaccines used in this country did not contain this serovar. Prof Bragg established that the long term use of vaccines not containing the local South African strain resulted in a shift in the population distribution of the pathogen.

Prof Bragg’s research activities also include disease control in parrots and pigeons. “One of the main research projects in my group is on the disease in parrots caused by the circovirus Beak and Feather Disease virus. This virus causes serious problems in the parrot breeding industry in this country. This virus is also threatening the highly endangered and endemic Cape Parrot,” said Prof Bragg.

Prof Bragg’s research group is currently working on the development of a DNA vaccine which will assist in the control of the disease, not only in the parrot breeding industry, but also to help the highly endangered Cape Parrot in its battle for survival.

“Not all of our research efforts are directed towards infectious coryza or the Beak and Feather Disease virus. One of my Masters students is currently investigating the cell receptors involved in the binding of Newcastle Disease virus to cancerous cells and normal cells of humans. This work will also eventually lead to a possible treatment of cancer in humans and will assist with the development of a recombinant vaccine for Newcastle disease virus,” said Prof Bragg.

We are also currently investigating an “unknown” virus which causes disease problems in poultry in the Western Cape,” said Prof Bragg.

“Although disinfection has been extensively used in the poultry industry, it has only been done at the pre-placement stage. In other words, disinfectants are used before the birds are placed into the house. Once the birds are placed, all use of disinfectants stops,” said Prof Bragg.

“Disinfection and bio security can be seen as the ‘Cinderella’ of disease control in poultry. This is also true for human medicine. One just has to look at the high numbers of people who die from hospital-acquired infections to realise that disinfection is not a concept which is really clear in human health care,” said Prof Bragg.

Much research has been done in the control of diseases through vaccination and through the use of antibiotics. “These pillars of disease control are, however, starting to crumble and more effort is needed on disinfection and bio security,” said Prof Bragg.

Prof Bragg has been working in close co-operation with a chemical manufacturing company in Stellenbosch to develop a unique disinfectant which his highly effective yet not toxic to the birds.

As a result of this unique product, he has developed the continual disinfection program for use in poultry. In this program the disinfectant is used throughout the production cycle of the birds. It is also used to ensure that there is excellent pre-placement disinfection.

“The program is extensively used for the control of infectious diseases in the parrot-breeding industry in South Africa and the product has been registered in 15 countries around the world with registration in the USA in the final process,” said Prof Bragg.

“Although the problem of plasmid mediated resistance to disinfectants is starting to rear its ugly head, this has allowed for the opening of a new research field which my group will hopefully exploit in the near future,” he said.

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