Public Service Commission chair calls for mobilisation against corruption, municipal collapse

From Joburg and Tshwane spending millions on water tankers to Welkom drowning in raw sewage, the scale of service delivery failures and poor governance in municipalities has become a disturbing pattern.

Professor Somadoda Fikeni, Commissioner of the Public Service Commission, says citizens are right to ask why misconduct often goes unpunished and what needs to be done to achieve ethical, effective governing.

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As a citizen, he says, he is concerned by what he calls the 'political economy of inefficiency'.

“I am worried", he says. "There is inefficiency, not by default but by design, and it is where many people conduct their corruption."

Fikeni is calling for the country to mobilise in 'the same way we mobilised against apartheid'  to fight corruption and inefficiency.

"It is choking the country," he says.

Fikeni says mobilisation could take many forms.

"You can call the anti-corruption helpline," he suggests.

He adds that the position of an absolute majority does not exist in many parts of the country.

"So, other parties now have more muscle to demand change," he says.

To listen to Fikeni in conversation with 702's Bongani Bingwa, use the audio player below: