JOHANNESBURG, March 31 (Xinhua) -- The South African government is launching an intensive operation against rampant corruption to promote the social sustainable development, local media reported on Saturday.

As much as 30 billion rands (about 4 billion U.S. dollars) is estimated to be lost in the government procurement process per year due to corruption according to the Special Investigation Unit (SIU), the South African Press Association reported, citing the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) leader Kenneth Meshoe on Saturday. The SIU was established in July 2001 through the presidential proclamation with an aim of conducting independent investigations into graft and organized crime at the President's request, and it will directly report to President and the Parliament on the outcomes.

President Jacob Zuma has ordered the SIU to investigate possible corruption in five departments of the northern province of Limpopo, the South African main newspaper Business Day reported on Friday.

The SIU said on Friday it will immediately dispatch a significant number of people to start its investigation, which will be focused on the maladministration in the provincial departments, such as cash, supply chain, contract management and the budget implementations.

They will also probe into the causes of the maladministration in the health, infrastructure, education and the provincial treasury, said the SIU.

The investigators have been mandated to look into unlawful conducts by officials and employees in the provincial departments, including the illegal appropriation or expenditure of state property, illegal acquisition of state property and the intentional or negligent loss of public money or damage to public property, according to the SIU.

The SIU will make an effort to cooperate with other bodies involved in the intervention, such as the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, the National Prosecuting Authority and the Financial Intelligence Center as well as the South African Avenue Service.

"The current government has placed greater emphasis on combating corruption, which could be illustrated by the Presidency declaring the fight against corruption as a key priority in the year ahead," the National Prosecuting Authority's Deputy National Director of Public Prosecutions Willie Hofmeyr said a month ago.

"Nearly 400 suspected swindlers are being investigated, including prominent politicians and businessmen," he said.

"The South African government has set a target of sending 100 corrupted officials charged with unlawful assets exceeding five million rands to prison by 2014," said he.

However, corruption is rampant everywhere in South Africa, and the anti-corruption will face many challenges in the country.

A year ago, as former head of the SIU, Hofmeyr once told Parliament's portfolio committee, "We have received a flood of new cases about the corruption, and some of them are very big."

In February, he warned though significant progress had been made in combating corruption, the anti-corruption combat in this country could only be successful if there are more close co- operations across all governing spheres.

ACDP leader Meshoe also stressed on Saturday one of the prerequisites to an efficient and effective government is that corruption must be controlled, and the capacity of the SIU and other law enforcement bodies should be enlarged.

"Some more measures should be taken for boosting anti- corruption efforts, such as strengthening state auditing and protecting tippers," said Meshoe.