Transparency International (TI) recently launched its G20 Anti-Corruption Open Data Studies, which assesses how countries in that group are implementing the G20 anti-corruption open data principles. The main objectives of the study were to establish how much progress G20 governments have made in implementing open data as part of an anti-corruption regime; what are the Read more >
It’s been called “Sassa-gate” for all the right reasons: a government crisis characterised by several weeks of blame games; political backbiting; forensic investigations revealing unlawful information peddling; and even lawsuit threats. It is a situation that many South Africans would hate to see repeated in the future. After weeks of tension and anxiety, relief came Read more >
In November last year we reported on the establishment of the Office of the Information Regulator. This body falls under the Protection of Personal Information (Popi) Act, which serves as South Africa’s data protection act. Popi itself is not yet in force, but sections pertaining to the Regulator were put into effect through a presidential Read more >
The Constitutional Court today handed down a unanimous, blistering judgment in the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) matter. Judge Johan Froneman ruled that the court will take over supervision of the implementation of the current and future grants process, indicating that the bench had no trust in social development minister Bathabile Dlamini. “This judgment Read more >
Corruption Watch yesterday appeared in the Constitutional Court as amicus curiae in the matter of the Black Sash vs the minister of social development et al, with Freedom Under Law and the South African Post Office also making submissions. Our submissions focused on the apparently pending interim agreement between Sassa and Cash Paymaster Services (CPS), Read more >
The Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) amendment bill is one step closer to promulgation. Having being tabled in Parliament as long ago as April 2015 by former finance minister Nhlanhla Nene, and sent back and forth a couple of times between President Jacob Zuma and the Standing Committee of Finance, the bill was passed last week Read more >
By Erin Torkelson First published on GroundUp In October 2016, I met a young mother, Thandeka*, who was crying at one of Khayelitsha’s busiest social grant pay points. A Cash Paymaster Services (CPS) official had informed her that she would only receive 26c of her R350 child support grant. Then, because CPS no longer Read more >
UPDATE: Sassa has withdrawn its application to the Constitutional Court for an extension of the contract with Cash Paymaster Services. The agency says it will lodge the case again – but time is running out. Read more about this development. The South African Social Services Agency’s (Sassa) relationship with social grants service provider Cash Read more >
Today, a month after its fifth birthday, Corruption Watch releases its fifth annual report. The report celebrates the almost 15 000 whistle-blowers who have approached us during the last half a decade, and also features highlights of what was a busy year for the organisation. This large volume of reports clearly indicates that the South Read more >