By Kersty McCourtFirst published on Open Government Partnership Robust and vibrant civil societies play a critical role in contributing to development. Civil society helps shape policies, advocate for the needs and demands of citizens, provide essential services, protect human rights, and strengthen public participation in democracy. Yet, over the past decade, there has been insufficient Read more >
Corruption Watch (CW) will release its 11th annual corruption report, titled Accelerating justice, on Tuesday, 4 April 2023. The report comes at a low point in South Africa’s history, as the country as grapples with the consequences of widespread corruption and deterioration of systems and services, with slow or weak accountability mechanisms. More than a Read more >
A report released in mid-March 2023 by the Tax Justice Network (TJN) shows a slow but steady implementation of beneficial ownership transparency (BOT) regulations across the African continent. Titled Beneficial Ownership Transparency in Africa in 2022, the report reveals the state of play of the introduction of laws addressing the lack of BOT, and examines Read more >
Issued by My Vote Counts on 3 March 2023First published on My Vote Counts Yesterday, the IEC published the political party funding disclosures covering October – December 2022. Significantly, the ANC disclosed R32-million, from just three donors. This makes up 80% of the total donations parties disclosed and is expected, considering the party held its Read more >
As civil society organisations dedicated to building an accountable, democratic and capable state, the government’s new disaster management regulations are cause for alarm. The electricity crisis is destroying the livelihoods of our people. We believe that urgent action is needed to address it. The new emergency procurement provisions, however, threaten more corruption and inefficiency. The Read more >
Plans are afoot to tackle South Africa’s lackadaisical beneficial ownership regime. The Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) has announced that it will implement a beneficial ownership (BO) information collection and storage regime as soon as regulations in that regard are promulgated. Greater BO transparency is a crucial component in the fight against financial crime. Read more >
Image: Col André Kritzinger, used under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Addressed to: Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa Office of the President of the Republic of South Africa Office of the Speaker of Parliament Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Transport PRASA, hands off whistleblowers We, the undersigned organisations, call on the Passenger Rail Agency Read more >
South Africa’s national treasury has released a useful fact sheet on the background to and implications of the country’s recent greylisting by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). Titled What does FATF greylisting mean for a country?, the six-page document explains the role of the FATF and the mutual evaluations all FATF members are required Read more >
By Janine Erasmus The life of an activist in South Africa is as fraught with danger as that of a whistle-blower. Both stand up to corruption and in so doing, put their safety, and even their lives, on the line. Both suffer abuse, ridicule, and harassment from the perpetrators of corruption as well as the Read more >