The trade union movement, representing millions of South African workers, has declared war on corruption in the country and has launched an independent body, Corruption Watch as a way of holding public and private officials to account.

Government officials, union representatives and civil society members attended the historic launch at Constitutional Hill in Johannesburg.

Speaking at the launch, Cosatu's Zwelinzima Vavi said the launch of Corruption Watch is a critical intervention.

"There is not a single day without newspapers exposing corruption of a government worker who extorts money out of the poor or how government officials collude with business to inflate the prices of tenders and provide substandard housing to the poor," he said.

Vavi said everyone knew all too well the "devastating impact of corruption on the lives of thousands of poor black South Africans". He quoted several figures that were released this year.

For instance, last week the country's Auditor General, Terence Nombembe uncovered R 20 billion (US$ 2.5 billion) in unauthorised expenditure in 2010 -11. Nombembe's unit said, only three out of 39 government departments, down from six three years ago, and 106 out of 272 state-owned enterprises, had clean audits for 2011.

The former head of the Special Investigating Unit, Willie Hofmeyr, has also estimated that the government loses up to R 30 billion (US$ 3.5 billion) to corruption annually.

If we acknowledge that corruption is a way of life in South Africa, we have lost the battle

Vavi said the revolving door between public representatives and business had normalised a picture of public representatives living in mansions behind high-wall and electric fences while the surrounding townships they are supposed to serve reel under the misery of neo-liberalism, poverty and unemployment.

Addressing the televised launch, the Justice Minister, Jeff Radebe said, "corruption is a criminal act that steals the fruit of our struggle, and we must declare it our enemy as apartheid was. If we acknowledge that corruption is a way of life in South Africa, we have lost the battle."

Radebe said to be corrupt is a contradiction of the culture of the ruling African National Congress.

The National chair at Justice Project South Africa and corruption buster, Howard Dembovsky welcomed the launch of the body.

"We need an effective body to fight corruption, please God let this work."

Dembovsky said the current bodies are not focused enough and there is need for something to be successful.

"There is a lot of political talk but now is the time for some action, we need to see arrests and we want to see more people being sent to jail for corrupt practices".

The new body launched a website and members of the public to use it in reporting corrupt practices. And for those that do not have access to the Internet, an affordable text message service has also been launched.

The body says it can only be successful if citizens name and shame corrupt people. A report into health and traffic officials' abuses will be released shortly.

Cosatu urged all its members and all South Africans to work closely with Corruption Watch to help rid of this fatal cancer within society.