PRETORIA, South African President Jacob Zuma has called on government departments and entities which owe a total of almost 390 million Rand (about 29.8 million US dollars) to the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) to settle their debt in order to enable the entity to function optimally.

“President Jacob Zuma has called upon government departments and entities that owe the SIU, to pay their debts without delay to enable the SIU to continue functioning optimally,” the Presidency said in a statement here over the weekend.

President Zuma met with head of the SIU, Andy JL Mothibi, at his Mahlamba Ndlopfu residence in Pretoria on Friday. It was their first meeting since Advocate Mothibi was appointed as head of the SIU in 2016.

The mandate of the SIU is to recover and prevent financial losses to the state caused by acts of corruption, fraud and maladministration. The SIU also assists departments with systemic improvements that improve service delivery.

Mothibi informed the President that the entity is owed 388,966,514 Rand by State institutions.

“The President said it was unacceptable that the institutions would withhold much-needed funding to the SIU and that they should pay up without delay,” said the Presidency.

The SIU is currently undertaking many investigations based on proclamations signed by the President. In particular, between 2010 and 2016, a total number of 69 SIU proclamations were signed, with 10 proclamations signed in the 2016/2017 financial alone, to investigate a number of allegations of corruption.

The actual value of the money and/or assets which have been recovered for the State and/or relevant third parties by the SIU is 22.5 million Rand to date in 2016/17. Since 2011/12, the total value of money that has been recovered for the State to date is 279.5 million Rand.