On 25 June Cabinet received the latest progress report on the government response to the recommendations of the Zondo commission. These range from CIPC reviews of implicated private sector entities and resultant investigations, to a welcome update on the value of recovered state capture-linked assets.
The SAI20 2025 summit is under way in Johannesburg, bringing together the supreme audit institutions (SAIs) from G20 countries. South Africa’s auditor-general Tsakani Maluleke opened the event on Tuesday morning, 24 June, saying that SAIs have a significant role to play in ensuring that public sector auditors all over the world can do their work unhindered, and that public resources are strategically harnessed for the purpose of improving citizens’ lives.
The seventh Annual Regional Binding Treaty Indaba recently concluded in Johannesburg, bringing together mining-affected communities, civil society groups, African state representatives, academics, and national human rights institutions. The focus of the event was the need for a binding international treaty that sets human rights standards, provides robust remedial mechanisms, and ends corporate impunity, especially in the extractives sector.
After more than two years of intensive work to improve its anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing framework, the weaknesses of which earned it a spot on the FATF grey list, South Africa stands on the brink of being delisted. After its June plenary, the FATF announced that the country had substantially completed its action plan and will shortly undergo an on-site assessment which, if favourable, will see it removed from the grey list in October.
Youth Month: a look at Indonesia’s example of youth pushing for accountability, from the perspective of an anti-corruption researcher.
GroundUp reports that the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation has finally started a review of the social grants payment system, hoping to fix long-running problems that have affected the lives of millions of beneficiaries. The process is expected to run until December, but activists are urging the department to prioritise the matter.
Corruption is an enabler of wildlife crime, and can occur at any stage along the illegal trade chain. With the involvement of organised crime syndicates, law enforcement agencies’ task is made that much more difficult. A glimmer of hope was revealed recently by the Wildlife Justice Commission, which reported that in the years since the Covid-19 lockdown lifted, trafficking in elephant ivory and pangolin scales remains at a fraction of the pre-Covid volumes.
This year’s Financial Secrecy Index, released on 3 June by the Tax Justice Network, shows that nine of the top 10 countries are seeing worsening conditions for democracy. The US again tops the list of 141 countries, contributing nearly 6% of the world’s financial secrecy, while the EU as a bloc accounts for 21%.
Corruption Watch welcomes the judgment handed down yesterday, 2 June 2025, by the Western Cape High Court in the matter of the designation of Dr John Hlophe to the Judicial Services Commission. The court declared that Hlophe, an impeached former judge president of that same court, was not fit and suitable to serve on a body that safeguards the integrity and independence of the judiciary, and set his appointment aside.