THE Government’s commitment to confronting corruption through the National Anti-Corruption Strategy 2 (2026–2030) offers an important opportunity to strengthen public institutions, protect national resources and build confidence in the country’s development agenda at this juncture.
Cabinet’s approval of the strategy reflects a broader approach to tackling corruption, recognising the importance of preventing malpractice, strengthening accountability and ensuring that public resources are protected through effective institutional safeguards.
The whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach is encouraging because law enforcement agencies alone cannot secure lasting integrity without the participation of citizens, businesses, and public institutions at every level of public life.
The integration of prevention, detection and prosecution provides a coordinated framework for strengthening accountability, closing institutional loopholes and fostering collective responsibility in the fight against corruption across Government and society.
The emphasis on high-risk sectors, including gold smuggling and border management, is especially significant because illicit trade deprives the country of revenue that could otherwise support infrastructure, public services and productive investment for national development.
Finance Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube’s identification of gold smuggling and border management loopholes as priority areas highlights the need to safeguard national resources, plug revenue leakages and protect legitimate economic activity.
Closing these gaps will require more than occasional operations, however, sustained cooperation among agencies responsible for customs, policing, revenue collection, mining regulation and the administration of borders will be essential to prevent revenue losses.
Improved information-sharing can help institutions identify suspicious transactions, respond quickly to emerging risks, and avoid fragmented oversight by enabling timely, coordinated, and accountable action across institutions.
Digitalisation is consequently one of the strategy’s most promising elements where well-designed systems reduce unnecessary human contact, create reliable records and make public decisions easier to scrutinise and support more consistent public administration.
When services are accessible through transparent digital platforms, citizens and businesses can complete procedures more efficiently, while officials face fewer opportunities to manipulate processes or demand unofficial payments from everyone using essential public services.
Technology is not, by itself, a guarantee of integrity, and its success will depend on secure systems, competent personnel, reliable infrastructure and clear accountability for decisions made through digital platforms and regular independent scrutiny.
The strategy’s six pillars provide a useful structure for this work, linking legal reform and institutional strengthening with enforcement, public participation, targeted interventions in high-risk sectors and digital transformation with clear institutional performance standards.
Its integration into Government budgets and workplans is equally important because anti-corruption commitments must be translated into funded activities, measurable targets and regular assessments rather than remaining declarations of good intention and making progress easier to assess.
Results-based monitoring should therefore become a practical tool for identifying progress, exposing implementation gaps and ensuring that institutions remain answerable for the commitments they make under the national framework and publish credible progress reports regularly.
The proposed whistleblower legislation also deserves strong support, since citizens who report wrongdoing need credible protection against retaliation and confidence that their information will be treated responsibly and investigated fairly, while encouraging responsible reporting.
The strategy’s success will be reflected in more transparent institutions, effective enforcement and measurable reductions in corruption risks, strengthening public confidence while creating a more accountable environment for national development throughout its five-year implementation period.
