It’s time to change the way we talk and think about Africa, writes Nick Dearden. The continent is not poor, but looting, illicit financial flows, dodged taxes, illegal wildlife trade, wealth in the hands of a few, and other unasked-for costs are robbing it of its future. There is money coming into Africa, but more is leaving it.
Corruption has reached deep into communities around the country, said SACC general secretary Bishop Malusi Mpumlwana, and people did not see the need to become educated because there were other ways to make money. Mpumlwana and Prof Ivor Chipkin of Wits University were making submissions before Parliament’s portfolio committee of public enterprises, as part of the committee’s preparation for its inquiry into the affairs of Eskom and other state-owned entities, and state capture.
If South Africa is to recover, then the country’s badly frayed socio-economic fabric will need to be restitched, not just patched, writes Sean Gossel. Reversing the effects of state decay on the poor will take short-run and long-run interventions. Short-run measures will need to include holding public officials to account, reforming state owned enterprises and reversing the numerous institutional weaknesses at all levels of government, while long-term interventions must involve both public and private stakeholders.
Two Gauteng Community Safety Department officials are due to appear in the Johannesburg Commercial Court on Monday on charges of corruption
As of April 2017, the level of country compliance with the FATF 40 recommendations rests at just 25% across the 30 countries most recently assessed. While this is definitely an improvement since 2011, when full compliance across 160 countries was at 12.3%, taking 27 years since the standards were introduced to get to a 25% compliance level cannot exactly be called rapid progress.
International agencies have joined forces to tackle grand corruption across borders. Earlier in July the International Anti-Corruption Coordination Centre opened its doors, with the aim of clamping down on a crime category that can include bribery of public officials, embezzlement, abuse of power and money laundering of illegal proceeds.
In the wake of the recent G20 conference in Hamburg, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) noted that G20 leaders had reaffirmed their commitment to address illegal trade in wildlife and wildlife products, particularly through combating corruption. South Africa is a member of the G20 and a party to CITES.
G20 governments must lead the way in ceasing to treat civil society as the enemy, writes Cathal Gilbert in this op-ed just before the recent G20 meeting. Rather, civil society plays a critical role in securing public buy-in for government policies and helps to ensure that the right programmes get implemented at the local level, and it’s time that governments accept and embrace this.
Corruption Watch expresses its sadness at the news of the passing of Emma Mashinini, former Corruption Watch board member and loyal supporter of our work since inception. We are proud to have had her presence in our organisation, and we are grateful for the immense contribution that she made to our work.
Visit our GivenGain R20 for Change page and help us demand transparency in our systems, accountability in our leaders, and better empowerment and protection of whistle-blowers. By donating R20 a month, you’ll be supporting our work with communities across the country, helping them to know and access their rights and reduce the corruption that robs people of resources intended for their benefit.