Civil society organisations including Corruption Watch, have demanded clarity and transparency around the new disaster management regulations issued as a response to the electricity crisis in the country. The organisations say the regulations are too broad, too vague, and too opaque – inviting a repeat of the large-scale looting that took place during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Should whistle-blowers who are culpable in the unlawful scheme they help expose, but who have not been criminally convicted in connection with that scheme, be eligible for a reward? This is the interesting question that Harvard Law School research assistant Claire Beutter asks in this article.
The Companies and Intellectual Property Commission has announced that it will implement a beneficial ownership information collection and storage regime as soon as relevant regulations are promulgated. This is one of the deficiencies that the Financial Action Task Force requires South Africa to address, as part of its efforts to get off the financial watchdog’s grey list.
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.
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”.
The South African Police Service is seeking public feedback on the services it offers, through a survey. South African residents are encouraged to participate and share their honest views about the service.
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.
South African Police Service whistle-blower Patricia Mashale is in the process of petitioning Parliament for protection – but various hiccups along the way have delayed the application’s arrival at the Portfolio Committee on Police.
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.