Entries by Corruption Watch

CSOs demand that Prasa cease harassing whistle-blowers

3rd March 2023 in , , , /by

President Cyril Ramaphosa and much of his government are clearly not on the same page when it comes to whistle-blowers. While Ramaphosa pays lip service to the important role of whistle-blowers, other senior leaders continue to harass them with impunity. Corruption Watch, with 44 other civil society organisations, has now demanded that the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa stop its shameful victimisation of whistle-blowers such as Martha Ngoye.

Fact sheet on South Africa’s FATF greylisting

2nd March 2023 in , , , /by

South Africa’s debut on the Financial Action Task Force’s grey list will have a positive outcome, if government adheres to its recent statement that “addressing the action items will be in the interest of South Africa, and doing so is consistent with our existing commitment to rebuild the institutions
that were weakened during the period of state capture, the effectiveness of which is essential to addressing crime and corruption”.

Some (semi-serious) fun with AI-generated anti-corruption content

28th February 2023 in , /by

New AI tools like ChatGPT could help make anti-corruption work more efficient, writes Harvard Law School’s Prof Matthew Stephenson. For instance, by allowing the redeployment of highly-educated human beings away from tasks like basic research and drafting boilerplate language, these people could be freed up to do tasks that will bring out all of their skills. This is just one possibility – but, Stephenson cautions, we should use the opportunity to ensure our own work is more creative and distinctive.

Activists run the gauntlet every day, on behalf of others

23rd February 2023 in , , /by

Across the world, activists working in many sectors risk their personal safety and often their lives to do their job of upholding human rights. A report published recently by the Centre for Applied Legal Studies, titled Victimisation Experiences of Activists in South Africa, provides a grim insight into the risks that activists across a range of sectors face every day.

Strict new measures to combat lottery corruption

20th February 2023 in , /by

The National Lottery Commission’s new board has introduced a number of measures to prevent corruption, writes Raymond Joseph for GroundUp, which has focused extensively on lottery corruption in recent years. These measures include the establishment of a new anti-corruption division, tand he appointment of three audit firms to investigate various aspects of fraud and corruption involving Lottery funds.

Corruption kills: how it made the Turkey earthquake much worse

14th February 2023 in , /by

The catastrophic earthquake which recently devastated parts of Turkey and Syria was unavoidable, because the area is prone to earthquakes. What was avoidable, writes Transparency International board member Oya Özarslan, was the corruption, poor planning and building standards, lacklustre management, greed, and other factors which made the tragedy worse and resulted in many more people losing their lives.