Is Zuma afraid of upsetting the hyenas with votes?

The Public Administration Management Bill, which proposes prohibiting public servants from doing business with the state, was hailed by graft monitors as a critical initiative when it was gazetted in August last year.

David Lewis, the executive director of Corruption Watch, went so far as to describe the draft legislation as ''potentially an obstacle to corruption at least as great as the 'secrecy bill' is an aid to it''.

The bill, introduced by then public service and administration minister Lindiwe Sisulu, stipulates that state employees would have to disclose their own financial interests, those of their spouses and partners, and those of anyone else living with them. Public servants who contravened it would face dismissal.

Despite objections from the DA about certain provisions that it feared could result in the central government infringing on the powers of the provinces, the bill - the central tenet of which is uncontroversial and is widely supported - was passed by parliament well ahead of the May election.

Here was proof at last that the ruling party was getting serious about fighting the corruption scourge that is costing this country billions of rands every year, and threatening our economic wellbeing and development agenda.

The only trouble is that the draft law has been waiting for President Jacob Zuma's signature ever since.

Last week Business Day quoted a DA official as saying he feared the delay was deliberate, a strategy to appease powerful figures in the ANC and public servants who were against the corruption-busting aspects of the legislation and that it was necessary to keep them sweet ahead of the 2016 local government elections.

Zuma would do well to take the nation into his confidence about the fate of a law that could go a long way towards restoring confidence in our governance.