Released yesterday, Corruption Watch’s new schools report highlights the main areas of corruption in schools, the key players in schools corruption and the heroic work of whistleblowers, and makes some recommendations on how to mitigate this corruption.
Corruption Watch’s new schools report reveals that 54% of corruption cases reported to us implicate principals as the primary culprits, with collusion between, among others, members of school governing bodies, teachers, family members and other outside parties involved in contractual arrangements with schools.
For the police to be able to do their work efficiently and effectively they must be depoliticised, says our board member Vusi Pikoli, currently the Western Cape police ombud. He was delivering the keynote speech at the 6th Institute for Security Studies international conference last week.
National Good Governance Week 2015 runs from 19-23 October, under the theme “20 years of protecting public: success, challenges and the road ahead”. The campaign aims to promote good governance and integrity in all state affairs, and raise awareness and encourage dialogue on governance among the executive, legislatures, government officials and civil society.
The right to privacy is not implicated by disclosure of party funding, writes legal researcher Matthew Kruger. At most, it is minimally implicated, because the funding of a political party is by nature a public act. If it is to be truly political in the way that it purports to be, the act of funding must be disclosed.
For knowing all along he was guilty but refusing to do the right thing by stepping down, and for not adhering to its own election manifesto by acting against members found guilty of corruption, Northern Cape finance MEC John Block and the ANC are our zeroes for the week.
We have passed the time to be thinking about corruption as a problem that lies elsewhere, writes Melusi Ncala. We all need to be aware of how we contribute to that environment of wrongdoing, and if we expect others to show behaviour of transparency and accountability, we should include ourselves in that number.
Southern Africa as a whole does not enjoy high levels of media freedom. However, in this region, there are moves afoot to address the problem – including the abolition of criminal defamation.
Our new two-part series examines some of the ways that governments in Southern Africa attempt to muzzle investigative journalists. In part one, a trio of journalists who have been targeted share their individual experiences with us. Look out for part two, which looks at positive developments around this issue, tomorrow.
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.