As South Africa begins to look ahead to local government elections in 2026, a recent symposium on political party funding, hosted by the Independent Electoral Commission, brought together key stakeholders to assess progress in the four years since the promulgation of what is now known as the Political Funding Act. The event also aimed to explore how to strengthen the country’s democratic framework in this regard.
In August this year Corruption Watch successfully challenged the validity of the 2022 appointment of five commissioners to the Commission for Gender Equality. The Constitutional Court declared those appointments to be invalid and instructed Parliament to rerun the process. The Portfolio Committee on Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities is now preparing to run, from 1 December to 23 January, a series of adverts calling for new nominations.
The commission dealt this week with the challenge by News24 and Daily Maverick, brought in the interests of transparency, to the in camera ruling that was to apply. The parties reached a compromise on the witness appearing at the beginning of the week – agreeing to a system that would see the witness testify remotely and an intermediary relay their responses – and accepted the need for the testimony in the later part of the week to be held behind closed doors.
So far, 325 submissions have been received in response to a call for submissions to the parliamentary ad hoc committee set up to investigate the allegations of Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi. The deadline is 17 October. Meanwhile, the committee has also announced an extension of its term from the end of October to 28 November which, members say, will allow it to properly execute its mandate.
South Africa’s Prevention of Organised Crime Act is designed to dismantle the core ranks at the centre of criminal entities, says the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime – but it does not cover the secondary networks of enablers who are vital to the smooth running of organised crime groups. The organisation, in a new report, proposes legislative amendments that will fill this gap and criminalise the activities of enablers who knowingly provide support to crime syndicates.
South African whistle-blowers have been overwhelmingly subjected to reprisals, write UJ’s Ugljesa Radulovic and Tina Uys – from murder to social, work-related, and legal retaliation. The problem, say the authors, lies in government’s failure to recognise the dire situation South African whistle-blowers find themselves in, compounded by lacklustre whistle-blower protection legislation.
The Parliamentary Monitoring Group is running a survey on public participation in Parliament, with the aim of gathering information from individuals and organisations to understand how effectively the national legislature facilitates participation, and how these processes can be improved. The survey should be completed by Wednesday, 22 October 2025.
Corruption Watch, with Social Change Assistance Trust and Transparency International and co-funded by the European Union, is driving enhanced accountability in South Africa through the Strengthening Action Against Corruption (SAAC) Project. This initiative specifically targets community advice offices/civil society organisations in the Eastern Cape province, equipping them with the knowledge and resources needed to identify and address corruption, and mobilise their communities.
Corruption Watch, with Social Change Assistance Trust and Transparency International and co-funded by the European Union, is driving enhanced accountability in South Africa through the Strengthening Action Against Corruption (SAAC) Project. This initiative specifically targets community advice offices/civil society organisations in the Eastern Cape province, equipping them with the knowledge and resources needed to identify and address corruption, and mobilise their communities.