The Auditor-General of South Africa, Mr Thembekile Kimi Makwetu, graced Rhodes University with a public lecture at Eden Grove Blue Lecture Theatre on the 19th March 2015. This talk, organized by the Public Service Accountability Monitor (PSAM), was not only aimed at Bachelor of Commerce (BCom) students but was attended by a larger population of the student body including the students from the Rhodes University School of Journalism and Media Studies.
As the introductions and welcome speeches got underway, Director of PSAM, Jay Kruuse painted a picture of Makwethu, his educational background, life achievements thus far and his family life.
Makwethu, who proved to be a natural lecturer, began his presentation with a screening of the Million bags video. This video was aimed at catching Makwethu’s audience members up on what auditing is and more specifically, what the Auditor-General of South Africa really does.
With everyone in the room now up to date about the important role of the man who stood before them, Makwethu finally started his lecture about the importance of Auditing.
While on the topic of ethics Makwethu expressed what he believes is the basic principal to ethical behavior, “Good work is done by people who care,” said Makwethu, “not text book ethics!” He went on to explain that if people care about what they are doing and who their job is affecting they will understand what ethics is about.
This was a wonderful opening statement to a lecture that was about Transparency. Makwethu explained that transparency is his department’s number one priority and the consequences of what a lack of transparency could lead to. “Who does the money belong to?” Makwethu asked, “Us, you and I- the people who pay taxes,” he added. “Someone who handles the money, your money, has to handle it with transparency,” said Makwethu, “people doing these jobs have to have the right skills and demonstrate the minimum level of knowledge required for the job.”
After showing a slide with governmental department statistics from 2011 to 2014, Makethwu explained that the departments of Education, Health and public works had a high level of audits with disclaimers. “This means that these departments have a low level of transparency,” said Makwethu, “therefore we need more people who care in these departments.”
Makwethu’s lecture continued along those lines until the question and answer session where, among many, an important question was raised. The question was what role do citizens play in ensuring that departments are held accountable for their actions?
In response, Makwethu said, “The community are the ones that have to report if departments have not done what they claim to have spent money doing. Journalists have a similar responsibility, yet they too have to bridge the gap between the average citizen and the Auditor-General as a lot at the moment is being lost in translation.”
“In closing,” said Makethwa, “There is a story of a child who asked her mother if life is tough, the mother’s response was ‘yes, but if you do the right thing the end will be good’.”
Article by: Thandi Bombi