A law that will significantly reduce corruption in Limpopo has been submitted by the Democratic Alliance.  The law, if adopted, will restrict state employees from doing business with government departments. In layman´s terms this will mean at local level that a municipal official or councillor will be restricted from getting a tender from the municipality.
In the past, it happened time and again that state employees with an interest in companies tendered for goods and services. In these cases there was a clear conflict of interest, but there was no means to regulate it.
"It has long been recognised that the absence of restrictions on state employees´ doing business with the state is a key driver of corruption,” said MPL Jacques Smalle, DA caucus leader in the Limpopo provincial legislature.
Last year, the Auditor-General conducted a performance audit of entities that are connected with government employees and do business with the State. Limpopo was the worst offender, with 929 employees associated with 1240 companies which did business with state departments, to the value of over R269 million. Of these employees, only eight had a verifiable approval by the department concerned.
Only in the Western Cape are there restrictions on state employees doing business with state departments. In Limpopo and the other provinces, there are currently no such restrictions.
This groundbreaking act will be entitled Limpopo (Business Interests of Employees) Procurement Act 2010 and will regulate the way in which state employees do business with government departments. The bill or proposed law “seeks to introduce new rules that will restrict provincial government employees from doing business with the provincial government (including provincial public entities) and will require every employee to disclose their business interests,” states Smalle.
The Bill will prohibit provincial government employees and their families from directly or indirectly holding more than 5% of shares, stock, membership or other interests in an entity that does business with the provincial government, unless in certain circumstances. Employees with a greater than 5% stake in a company currently doing business with the provincial government will be exempt from the legislation until the completion of the specific contract. 
The Bill further states that, before the provincial government enters into any contract with an entity for the sale, lease or supply of goods and services, the entity must provide an affidavit disclosing whether or not it is owned or partly owned by employees of the Limpopo government. All provincial government employees will be also required to disclose their business interests at prescribed intervals, in the same way that members of the Executive Council already do.
“Once the legislation is passed, the Director-General in the office of the Premier will compile and maintain a database of all employees’ business interests disclosed in terms of the legislation. All provincial government employees will be given three months to disclose. If employees fail to disclose their business interests, disciplinary action should be initiated against them,” states Smalle.