Addressing the National Council of Provinces last week, Cyril Ramaphosa said the government should not “be distracted” from its mandate to tackle corruption.

“We must take work seriously and act against reports of corruption in our municipalities,” he said.

People suffered most when corruption leads to local government failing, he added.

Ramaphosa today told the South African Jewish Board of Deputies he was determined the country would soon be “corruption free”.

This comes a month after staff from South Africa’s auditor general’s office were attacked and threatened by individuals, who PF International understands were concerned corrupt activity could be exposed.

Last month, the president described corruption in South Africa as an “amoeba with tentacles all over” and said that to deal with it “you must go to the heart of it and thereafter it then loosens its hold on everything else”.

The South Africa’s criminal justice system will “kick into action” and the time will come when “people are arrested, charged and found guilty and go to jail”, Ramaphosa added, at a press conference last month.

The current South African government has pledged to tackle corruption. The former president Jacob Zuma faces numerous allegations of corruption and was forced to step down.