Public Service and Administration Minister Faith Muthambi will on Friday convene a meeting in Pretoria to revive the National Anti-Corruption Forum (NACF), which last held its executive committee meeting five years ago.

Muthambi said the forum was essential, and that views that corruption started after the formation of the country’s first democratic government in 1994 were not true.

“There is a wrong perception out there that corruption is a post-1994 phenomenon, which is untrue because corruption was widespread during the apartheid era. As a democratic government, we have accountability mechanisms in place to combat corrupt activities that adversely affects government efforts to eradicate poverty,” she said in a statement.

“We’ve created a number of institutions to fight against corruption, but we strongly believe that we need the NACF to be effective so that we can realise a South Africa which has a zero tolerance for corruption, hence my decision to convene a special meeting of various stakeholders in all sectors of our society to revive the NACF.”

The forum was established in 2001 by government, business and sectors of civil society to help prevent and combat all forms of corruption in the country.

The last activity of the NACF was its fourth national anti-corruption summit in December 2011, with its last executive committee meeting held in November 2012.

Muthambi said the forum would be reconstituted at the Friday meeting which will be held at UNISA main campus.

South African Federation of Trade Unions leader Zwelinzima Vavi was the NACF chairperson and African National Congress presidential hopeful Matthews Phosa was chairperson back in 2012.