Transparency International’s 2020 Corruption Perceptions Index), released at the end of January 2021, highlights South Africa’s failure to move above 50 points on the index, write David Lewis and Janine Erasmus. The ANC’s unwillingness or inability to tackle corruption and crime in its own ranks is just one factor weighing on perceptions of the country.
Former president Jacob Zuma and his co-accused, French arms company Thales, will finally go on trial for corruption, money laundering and racketeering charges on 17 May. This brings to an end years of slippery evasion and stalling on the part of the two accused, with some assistance from authorities along the way.
In December 2020 CW published its second survey on youth and corruption, with several questions dedicated to their experiences with sextortion. While no extensive data exists to confirm whether sextortion is a problem in South Africa, or how widespread it is, wrote Sabeehah Motala at the time, the country’s endemic gender-based violence problem means it is not unthinkable that the two would interact at some point,.
Corruption Watch’s new interactive open data tool – Veza (a colloquial term for ‘reveal’ or ‘expose’) – equips a wide range of people, from researchers, journalists, activists and communities to the public at large, with the knowledge and insight to demand better and more accountable policing. It also provides an opportunity for the SAPS and other government structures to embrace the concept of open data and public access to information – this will go a long way to restoring public confidence in the vital role that they play in the country.
A new report released this month by Transparency International compares the enforcement of the AU Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption in 10 countries, including South Africa. The report focuses on four key areas of the convention. and finds that progress on enforcing the AUCPCC’s provisions across Africa is mixed, although most countries have taken important steps in developing their legal frameworks to comply with these four articles.
On 17 February 2021, Corruption Watch will launch the Veza Tool – an interactive and open data website that aims to increase transparency and accountability in the police service. Veza, which, loosely translated, means ‘expose’ or ‘reveal’, is designed to empower communities with mechanisms to combat corruption and break the cycle of impunity in the police service.
In his 2021 State of the Nation address, delivered on 11 February, President Cyril Ramaphosa reassured a despondent nation that the fight against corruption would continue, and government was putting new measures in place to tackle it, while continuing with its current efforts..
The global arms industry must do more to improve the quality and transparency of its anti-corruption measures, says Transparency International in new research. The organisation’s Defence Companies Index on Anti-Corruption and Corporate Transparency, released today, reveals the continuing secrecy of the defence sector, with almost three-quarters of companies assessed failing to achieve even a C ranking.
A new Special Investigating Unit report on irregular government procurement in respect of the response to the Covid-19 pandemic, reveals that 189 institutions and individuals were implicated in the theft of millions, and consequently investigated. The SIU has referred 65 of these cases to various bodies, including the National Prosecuting Authority, for disciplinary action or criminal prosecution.
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