Despite grand promises from government to protect them, whistle-blowers simply do not feel safe in South Africa. Whistle-blower Martha Ngoye, group head of legal at the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa, shared this sentiment at a media and civil society briefing held at the end of August. Ngoye has been suspended because of her disclosure of corruption at the agency, pending the outcome of a disciplinary process.
A recently released survey of African youth, conducted in 15 countries on the continent, reveals their concerns and hopes around aspects as diverse as the political landscape, the environment, foreign relations and investment, media and connectivity, natural resources, effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, inequality, and unemployment.
Corruption Watch (CW) embarks today on a series of community engagements in the Free State province, from Tuesday 6 – Friday 9 September 2022. These events fall under Project Larona, CW’s work as part of the European Union Rallying Efforts to Accelerate Progress project, or EU REAP, which focuses on directly supporting groups at the intersection of income, wealth and social inequalities – those most left behind in Kenya and South Africa, and more broadly in Africa.
Corruption Watch has embarked on a series of community engagements in KwaZulu-Natal, from Monday 5 – Friday 9 September 2022, with the aim of improving transparency in policing and empowering communities to hold police in the province more accountable, through the ground-breaking Veza tool. The organisation will hold 9 community engagements around eThekwini during the course of the week.
In the North Gauteng High Court on Wednesday, Judge President Dunstan Mlambo dismissed an application for leave to appeal a judgment of 21 August 2019, which set aside the findings of the Seriti commission into allegations of corruption and impropriety in the 1999 arms deal. The appeal application was brought by Judge Willie Seriti, the commission’s chairperson, and former commission member Judge Hendrick Musi against Corruption Watch, the Right2Know Campaign, and five other respondents.
A compromised control environment, vacancies in critical positions, inadequate needs assessments, and lack of urgency – these are some of the factors contributing to government’s slow response to the deadly floods of April 2022 in KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape. Auditor-General Tsakani Maluleke named these, and more, when on 31 August she presented the first in a series of audit reports on the use of relief funds in these two provinces.
A new report, published by the Parliamentary Monitoring Group, has found that there is much that Parliament can do to improve its oversight functions and capabilities. For a start, it should implement legislative changes recommended in 1999 in a previous report on oversight and accountability mechanisms, which it ignored.
The establishment of the National Anti-Corruption Advisory Council must be seen as a vehicle to take the country forward in restoring public trust and building viable institutions, says Corruption Watch executive director Karam Singh. “The collective wisdom that this team represents will play an important role in advising the president on the most appropriate anti-corruption efforts to finally turn things around in the country.”
Cabinet has approved an amendment bill that will strengthen the fight against money laundering. The bill, which seeks to amend five laws, is expected to go some distance towards addressing the deficiencies identified by the Financial Action Task Force in its mutual evaluation report of South Africa’s legal framework against financial crimes and corruption.
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.