In September 2018 former social development minister Bathabile Dlamini was ordered by the Constitutional Court to personally pay 20% of the legal costs of the applicants in a drawn-out case involving the South African Social Security Agency and Cash Paymaster Services, regarding the payment of social grants. Dlamini resisted for some time, but has finally paid up.
Sixteen years of dodging corruption, racketeering and money laundering charges may finally be at an end for former president Jacob Zuma, who is set to go on trial for those charges on Monday 17 May. We say ‘may’ because Zuma currently has no legal team and there has been speculation that the case could be postponed on Monday if he fails to secure legal representation by then.
Corruption Watch and Right2Know successfully challenged the findings of the Seriti commission of inquiry into allegations of corruption in the controversial arms deal of 1999. Now, two years after the commission’s report was set aside by the High Court, Judges Willie Seriti and Hendrick Musi, who presided over it, face an investigation into their conduct in the matter.
The equivalent of 26-million nurses’ annual salaries every year, or 50 nurses’ annual salaries every minute – this is how much tax revenue is siphoned from poorer countries around the world, with the not insignificant assistance of the OECD, which sets the rules for global taxation. Read up on the 2021 Corporate Tax Havens Index, released in March 2021 by the Tax Justice Network. This article is part 3 of our mini-series on financial secrecy.
The North West’s Balomiti community is fighting what appears to be irregular mining operations on their privately-owned land, writes Mashudu Masutha, legal researcher in extractives at Corruption Watch. All attempts to engage with the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy have been met with silence, and our investigation revealed that mineral permits awarded during the pandemic period have not been properly recorded. This opacity makes it difficult to establish the chain of events.
Corruption Watch has been involved for some time in supporting the Bapo ba Mogale community’s engagements with local government, as they demand answers from officials, writes Mashudu Masutha, the organisation’s legal researcher in extractives. But the Bapo people have been treated with disdain, and the answers they seek have not been forthcoming.
On this World Press Freedom Day, and the 30th anniversary of the Windhoek Declaration for a free press, we at Corruption Watch salute all the individuals and organisations around the world who work tirelessly, often in the most hostile of environments, to expose crime and corruption and to ensure that nefarious deeds bring consequences for those who commit them.
Global financial secrecy has waned over the last couple of years, according to the latest edition of the Financial Secrecy Index, released by the Tax Justice Network. Despite this encouraging sign, however, many countries still play far too great a role in driving the secrecy trade and its elements of tax evasion, money laundering, embezzlement, capital flight, and more. This is part 2 of our mini-series on financial secrecy.
Between the provisions of section 32 of the Constitution and the Promotion of Access to Information Act, writes CW’s Matshidiso Dibakwane, people should have unhindered access to information that affects them. However, this is no guarantee and in many cases government officials deliberately withhold information, preferring secrecy and opacity to transparency. The final report of the North West provincial government’s Mafereka commission of inquiry is one such example.
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.