By BAKANG MOKOTO

17 December 2025- The Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, Mmamoloko Kubayi said she commends the Republic of South Africa (RSA) president, Cyril Ramaphosa for his able leadership during the 11^th session of the COSP and presiding over this important discussion of the Implementation Review Mechanism. Kubayi said South Africa has successfully concluded both cycles of the Implementation Review Mechanism. 

She further said subsequent to this, various measures including legislation, national anti-corruption strategies and policies, were reviewed to strengthen measures against corruption. Kubayi added that through the National Anti-Corruption Strategy, South Africa adopted a “whole of society” approach to fighting corruption which highlights the importance of government and civil society organisations, youth groups, business organisations and academia, uniting against corruption. 

“Recognition is also made to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment in the fight against this scourge as this group remains vulnerable to corrupt activities. 

“Their responsibility as care-givers necessitates their need to access various services from mainly the public sector,” she said. 

Kubayi said South Africa would like to express itself on the issue of the second phase of the mechanism. She said after the discussions that have been held regarding this subject, South Africa is of the view that the second phase of the Implementation Review should go beyond availability of measures to prevent and combat corruption. 

“The State Party should demonstrate how such measures are being implemented in practice. We believe that examining how recommendations of the previous phase have been implemented to improve the State’s anti-corruption measures is crucial to the implementation review process. 

“The State Party can also include additional information on the developments that took place since the previous phase of the Implementation Review and the consideration of technical assistance review should include the impact of technical assistance already provided to support the implementation of the articles under review,” said Kubayi.

She said identifying further needs for technical assistance will assist in the coordination and planning of technical assistance by various role players and they believe would increase the effectiveness of regional platforms. Kubayi said they believe that during the review, the States Parties should be encouraged to illustrate practical implementation of the Convention through statistics and/or case studies to reflect how the Convention has impacted the fight against corruption. 

“In the analysis of practical implementation, articles could be grouped by topic, to avoid repeating the same information. This will also assist in the structuring of the report and maybe make it shorter than it has previously been.

“When it comes to the sequencing of cycles, we believe that we should start with the review of Chapters III and IV because, besides accommodating the States Parties that ratified the Convention recently, States Parties had the opportunity to implement the recommendations of the first cycle of IRM,” she said.

Kubayi said many States Parties have recently concluded their review of Chapter II and V and some are still in the process of doing so. She thanked Ramaphosa for this opportunity to speak on this important agenda item. 

“My delegation would like to assure you of our support and cooperation to ensure that the 11th Session of the COSP comes to a successful conclusion,” said Kubayi.

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