Tlokwe’s forgotten community

By Valencia Talane Away from the political power drama that has made Tlokwe municipality in North West a hot topic recently, is the story of a small town – like many others in South Africa – where service delivery is seen to be compromised by corruption and non-accountability in the eyes of the community.   Read more >

Corruption and land: what the public have told us

By Valencia Talane Since launching in January 2012 Corruption Watch has received a sizeable number of complaints implicating the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform involving abuse of power, corruption in procurement processes and bribery. Because the majority of land changing hands between commercial farmers and formerly dispossessed communities is in the rural areas, Read more >

Corruption knows no colour

My name is Kavisha Pillay. I am 21 years old, and I am frustrated! The aftermath of Guptagate motivated me to write this opinion piece. Now that the dust has settled, and I’ve had time to digest it all, I can express my frustration: It bothers me that some people in our country let colour Read more >

The real cost of corruption – part two

By Lorraine Louw In part two of our three-part series on how much corruption is really costing South Africa, we reveal how financial misconduct is costing the country more and more every year. What is especially worrying is that it often goes unchecked and unpunished. The real cost of corruption – part one In a Read more >

Almost 50% of S Africans paid a bribe in last year

Some 47% of South Africans say they have paid a bribe in the last year to secure an essential service – a staggering 20% higher than the global average of 27%, according to the recently released findings of Transparency International’s 2013 Global Corruption Barometer. The report, which draws on the experiences of 114 000 respondents in Read more >

What’s the real cost of corruption – part one

By Lorraine Louw It’s easy to point to the losers when it comes to government corruption – that would be the residents and citizens. It is much more difficult to quantify the actual cash lost, with various government departments and entities, as well as political parties and NGOs, turning out their own figures. In October Read more >

How much corporate fraud is costing SA

Corporate fraud could be causing the country losses of about R150-billion, the audit firm BDO reported in May 2012. It was citing figures from the 2012 Report on Occupational Fraud and Abuse, prepared by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners. An analysis of more than 1 300 fraud cases probed worldwide showed that the estimated loss Read more >

Parastatals in the grip of graft

Airports, water boards, harbours and power utilities all play a vital role in South Africa’s economy, but what happens when staff at these state-owned enterprises (SOEs) rig multibillion-rand tenders or dish out jobs to their ill-suited friends and family? In this feature, we examine the dozens of tip-offs we’ve received about this kind of corruption Read more >