HEROES & ZEROES

Zero makes irregular appointment

The reshuffling of staff in any organisation is usually not a big deal if the purpose is to enhance performance and productivity and ultimately meet goals. It becomes a big deal, however, when it is done for political reasons and in the interests of a powerful few. Such was the case in the ANC legislature Read more >

HEROES & ZEROES

Gauteng health dept starts to clean up

Our hero this week is the Gauteng health department which, last week, dismissed 18 employees for various transgressions ranging from corruption, absenteeism, unauthorised use of an official vehicle, and theft of medicines. In 2013 we reported that in recent years the department has been beset with various problems, from mismanagement of funds to fraud and Read more >

HEROES & ZEROES

Bribe refusal leads to arrest of criminal

It did not seem like a tall ask. He offered R500 to a police officer towards some “cold drink” to help get himself out of trouble and keep the cops off his trail. But the man, a suspect in a theft case, did not bargain on the cop refusing to be bribed. Once he was Read more >

HEROES & ZEROES

Nhleko digs Nkandla hole deeper

Our zero this week is the police minister Nathi Nhleko, for his clumsy and opaque handling of his part of the Nkandla saga. Since Nhleko presented his puzzling report, in May, on whether or not President Jacob Zuma should pay back the money for over R260-million worth of upgrades done at the taxpayer’s expense to Read more >

HEROES & ZEROES

A most profitable handshake

Our zeroes this week are all those who promote the culture of underperforming or crooked employees resigning or reaching settlements, rather than facing the music for irregular activities. This includes those on the giving as well as the receiving side. In many cases the person in question leaves before their contract is up, but is Read more >

HEROES & ZEROES

DBE on cheaters’ case

Some of the matric candidates implicated in the 2014 National Senior Certificate exams cheating scandal have claimed that teachers helped them to cheat their way to better results. This is according to the national Department of Basic Education, which released a statement on 18 June on the progress of investigations into group cheating in KwaZulu-Natal Read more >

HEROES & ZEROES

Former top cop pleads guilty to corruption, kickbacks

Another bad police story – our zero this week is former deputy national police commissioner Lieutenant-General Hamilton Hlela, who has pleaded guilty in Pretoria’s Specialised Commercial Crimes Court to corruption and receiving kickbacks. The gratifications came from Midway Two Holdings, a company that was awarded tenders to the value of R4 billion between 2007 and Read more >

HEROES & ZEROES

Two non-leaders take joint zero

President Jacob Zuma and Fifa president Sepp Blatter are our joint zeroes of the week for this week, for reasons that do not stray far from the obvious: they both showed lack of leadership at very crucial times for their administrations. On the same day that the biggest scandal rocked the world’s largest sporting body, Read more >

HEROES & ZEROES

KZN court takes top cop down

Our hero this week is the KwaZulu-Natal justice system, which last week sentenced former provincial police spokesman Vincent Mdunge to five years in jail for fraud and forgery over a fake matric certificate. Mdunge has been granted leave to appeal but, added Durban Regional Court magistrate Thandeka Fikeni, “There is absolutely nothing respectable about white Read more >