JOHANNESBURG - President Cyril Ramaphosa's cabinet faces mounting scrutiny.
This comes as 24 officials suspected of undeclared income or assets have been identified.
While this mandatory measure roots out corruption, experts believe it fails to hold public officials to account.
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Among those is governance expert Alex van den Heever who claims that it offers a sense of pretense that there is an accountability measure being implemented but in reality, nothing is happening.
“Although they are useful, they are not an effective accountability mechanism. When it comes down to it, the sanctions involve the failure to declare assets rather than investigating how they accumulated these assets,” Van den Heever argued.
Lifestyle audits are designed to investigate whether the standard of living of government officials is in line with the income they receive.
Implemented across national and provincial departments, these audits are key in identifying corrupting, fraud or even tax evasion.
According to government, areas that are to be included in a lifestyle review include:
- Shares
- Loan accounts
- Income-generating assets
- Trusts
- Directorships and partnerships
- Remunerated work outside the employee’s employment in his or her department
- Consultancies and retainerships,
- Sponsorships
- Gifts and hospitality
- Ownership and other interests in immovable property and vehicles
Lifestyle audits are aimed at preventing and detecting risks of fraud, corruption and
unethical conduct.
Last month, the Portfolio Committee on Public Service and Administration expressed its support for legislative reform that would empower the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) to conduct lifestyle audits routinely and systematically across government departments.
The committee Chairperson, Jan de Villiers, said lifestyle audits are an important lever for strengthening accountability and promoting ethical conduct among public servants.
According to De Villiers, data shows that in 2025, among senior management service members, over 90 percent of government departments were implementing audits.
He said members heard that although cases are being identified and referred for investigation, a small number are fully investigated, an even smaller number leads to sanctions.
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The committee stressed that these weaknesses in accountability mechanisms have been consistently flagged by commissions.
It also noted that implementing lifestyle audits remains uneven across the public service.
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Much like Van den Heever, Tebogo Khaas of Public Interest SA questioned the effectiveness of the tool.
He said the root trickles into local levels as well.
“If you don't make it mandatory that officials even at the municipal level actually undergo lifestyle audit, then we are in for a big hiding.
“Because most of the transactions or most of the rot actually is across the board, but mainly also at service delivery level that is at municipality level where you find individuals driving around with or living beyond their means,” he said.