The deadline has come and gone for MPs to disclose their business and financial interests. Last year, although the deadline was the end of August, the public part of the register was only published in February 2017 and accordingly we do not expect the 2017 register to actually be published in 2017.
Corruption Watch has condemned attempts by the State Security Agency and the South African Revenue Service to stop distribution of investigative journalist Jacques Pauw’s book The President’s Keepers. We see these threats as the actions of highly compromised and captured state institutions intent on protecting the president.
Corruption Watch has written to the parliamentary standing committee on finance to request that, as the body that exercises oversight in respect of the South African Revenue Service, it urgently inquires into secretive processes that have resulted in suspended employee Jonas Makwakwa being cleared of all wrongdoing and returning to work. In the interests of transparency, we publish all the correspondence relating to our investigation.
There are numerous reasons for wanting to hide money. Perhaps you have a huge bribe to conceal, or you don’t want the tax authorities to hear about your sudden large windfall. Money laundering is the answer, bur it’s a complex process that involves tricky steps. We don’t recommend it.
Corruption Watch has recently been informed that Sars’ Jonas Makwakwa and Kelly-Ann Elskie, who were implicated by the Financial Intelligence Centre in money laundering and other criminal offences, have returned to work. We have written to Sars commissioner Tom Moyane inquiring about the circumstances of their return to work. We have also inquired with the Hawks about the status of their investigation into the three.
Huge amounts of donor money are lost every year to corruption, and the amount of aid reaching the most vulnerable is reduced, or its quality is diminished. Bribery or political interference in the distribution of relief, nepotism and cronyism in the hiring of staff, and even extortion of sexual favours in return for aid, are commonplace. Donor governments, the UN, humanitarian agencies, and host governments must invest more in anti-corruption efforts.
Africa’s political elites have built the same wealth plundering structures as the colonialists, a new investigative journalism report reveals. Accusing fingers should be pointed not only at multinationals, but at leaders of several African nations who feel no guilt in stealing taxpayers’ money, keeping poverty and unemployment levels high in their countries, and hindering investigations into their dodgy deeds.
The South African Police Service needs to operate without political interference, the Institute for Security Studies said today after the release of the latest national crime statistics. The figures painted a grim figure, and while the ISS recognised the bold efforts of many competent and honest police officers, it added that the root of the crime and policing crises in South Africa was the failure of the president to appoint a highly experienced woman or man of integrity as SAPS national commissioner.