Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi: 11th Session of the Conference of States Parties to the United Nations Convention Against Corruption

Mr. President,
Distinguished Delegates,

South Africa commends you for your able leadership during the eleventh session of the COSP and presiding over this important discussion of the Implementation Review Mechanism.
South Africa has successfully concluded both cycles of the Implementation Review Mechanism. Subsequent to this, various measures including: legislation, national anti-
corruption strategies, and policies were reviewed to strengthen measures against corruption.

Through the National Anti-Corruption Strategy, South Africa adopted a “whole of society” approach to fighting corruption which, highlights the importance of government and civil society organisations, youth groups, business organisations, and academia, uniting against corruption.

Recognition is also made to promoting gender equality and women's empowerment in the fight against this scourge as this group remains vulnerable to corrupt activities. Their responsibility as care-givers necessitate their need to access various services from mainly the public sector.

South Africa would like to express itself on the issue of the second phase of the mechanism.

After the discussions that have been held regarding this subject, South Africa is of the view that:

(i) The second phase of the Implementation Review should go beyond availability of measures to prevent and combat corruption. The State Party should demonstrate how such measures are being implemented in practice. We believe that examining how recommendations of the previous phase have been implemented to improve the State’s anti-corruption measures is crucial to the implementation review process. The State Party can also include additional information on the developments that took place since the previous phase of the Implementation Review; and

(ii) the consideration of technical assistance review should include the impact of technical assistance already provided to support the implementation of the articles under review.
Identifying further needs for technical assistance will assist in the coordination and planning of technical assistance by various role players and we believe would increase the effectiveness of regional platforms.

Mr President;
We believe that during the review, the States Parties should be encouraged to illustrate practical implementation of the Convention through statistics and/or case studies to reflect how the Convention has impacted the fight against corruption.

In the analysis of practical implementation, articles could be grouped by topic, to avoid repeating the same information. This will also assist in the structuring of the report and maybe make it shorter than it has previously been.

Finally, President,
When it comes to the sequencing of cycles, we believe that we should start with the review of Chapters III and IV because, besides accommodating the States Parties that ratified the Convention recently, States Parties had the opportunity to implement the recommendations of the first cycle of IRM. Many States Parties have recently concluded their review of Chapter II and V, and some are still in the process of doing so.

Mr President,
I thank you for this opportunity to speak on this important agenda item. My delegation would like to assure you of our support and cooperation to ensure that the 11th Session of the COSP comes to a successful conclusion.

Thank you.

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