Gigaba: Fight against corruption must not be a fight against transformation

Gigaba was speaking at the World Economic Forum (WEF) on Africa in Durban. 

He said a lot more could have been done to change the lives of South Africans over the past 23 years. 

“My argument would be that we could have better changed the structure of production in the economy to diversify and create a thriving manufacturing sector. We have done it to some extent, yes, we could have done more and we could have focused more on beneficiation and developing the skills and capabilities of young people and implemented greater investment into SMMEs.” 

Gigaba has been at the centre of the debate over radical economic transformation, since he took over the portfolio from Pravin Gordhan during President Jacob Zuma’s controversial Cabinet reshuffle. 

He argued that economic transformation must not be allowed to become synonymous with corruption. 

“We are concerned about corruption, and we are aware that around the country at different levels in public and the private sector, corruption does take place. That is why we are fighting it as hard as we have and support the institutions that fight corruption.

“But the fight against corruption must not at the same time but become a fight against transformation. We must not get ourselves into a position where we use, in the same sentence, transformation and corruption as if bringing black people into the economy means corruption. We need to put ourselves in a position where we can achieve transformation without reducing transformation to corruption.”

Gigaba said the difficulties of incumbency means the ANC has a lot of work to do ahead of the 2019 general elections. He said there is no truth to reports that he was handed the portfolio by President Zuma, in order to loosen the government purse strings. 

“Treasury will continue to play a fiscal prudence role in government expenditure programmes and will not be bullied by anyone into spending what the country cannot afford.”