The Eastern Cape is the poorest province in the country, where people live in appalling conditions and are deprived of even the most basic of municipal services. Yet those who have brought about this situation refuse to be held accountable, and only residents and whistle-blowers suffer any consequences.
Transparency International says the escalating Russia/Ukraine conflict is enabled by corruption and dirty money, and calls for the world’s leading economies to address the corruption that exacerbates not only this situation, but democratic decline globally.
The Independent Electoral Commission has released the party funding report for the third quarter of the 2021/22 financial year. In total, 11 political parties made declarations totalling R46 036 589.97, in terms of the Political Party Funding Act. Of those 11 declarations made, four were made by unrepresented parties and seven by represented parties.
Ahead of Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana’s maiden national budget speech tomorrow, the Budget Justice Coalition has urged the minister to prioritise inclusive growth and job creation, as well as a movement away from austerity budgeting. The coalition strongly believes that economic recovery and a pro-poor budget can co-exist.
Corruption Watch and several other Transparency International chapters have written an open letter to the heads of delegations of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which is currently holding plenary and working group meetings in Paris. The letter urges FATF to speedily implement publicly accessible beneficial ownership registers across the globe, as this will help to clamp down on anonymous companies, illicit financial flows, and money laundering.
Despite ongoing queries – since 2018 – around the appointment of Karoo Hoogland municipal manager Jan Fortuin, questions remain unanswered. Corruption Watch recently reached out to the municipality for clarification, to no avail.
If the job of taking action is placed solely on the shoulders of government, the commission’s work is bound to have been in vain, write Richard Chelin and Craig Moffat. And given South Africa’s poor record on implementing the advice of commissions, this is where business and civil society must pitch in.
The Constitutional Court has ruled that there’s no reason for Cash Paymaster Services to delay providing documents on its expenses and income from its social grants contract, writes Tania Broughton for GroundUp. The court had previously held that CPS may not benefit from its unlawful contract with Sassa and ordered the company to file audited statements. CPS‘s liquidators went to court to try to postpone filing the statements but the apex court ruled that statements must be provided without further delay.
South Africa has no shortage of solutions to its corruption challenges, write Corruption Watch’s Karam Singh and Tharin Pillay. However, it has a serious lack of political will to implement the numerous recommendations and changes needed to fight the scourge – and the window of opportunity for action won’t stay open forever.