While South Africans, like much of the rest of the world, are worried about Covid-19, they are far more concerned about corruption and unemployment – unlike much of the rest of the world. This is one of the findings of the Ipsos What worries the world survey, published earlier this year.
The corruption trial of former president Jacob Zuma and his co-accused, French arms manufacturer Thales, has begun. Judge Piet Koen adjourned today’s proceedings until 26 May, to accommodate an application regarding the presence of state advocate Billy Downer in the case. Zuma’s formal plea of ‘not guilty’ will be entered on the same day. The trial is set to run from 17 May to 20 June 2021, and such days afterwards as are required.
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.