HEROES & ZEROES

Fighting corruption with technology

Corruption Watch has once again entered the Global Innovation Competition (GIC), and we need your support, because the public voting round has opened! South Africa is one of the 12 key countries taking part in the 2015 competition, organised by Johannesburg-based Making All Voices Count – the others are Bangladesh, Ghana, Indonesia, Kenya, Liberia, Mozambique, Nigeria, Read more >

CORRUPTION NEWS

Whistle-blowers in the hot seat at inquiry

By Anine Kriegler and Murray Hunter The arms companies have successfully avoided scrutiny at the Seriti Commission, essentially putting the whistle-blowers and critics on trial. The absence of the arms companies from the Seriti Commission is telling. The commission’s first phase was focused on the arms deal’s rationale – why the South African government bought Read more >

CORRUPTION NEWS

First Nene budget due today

Last year this time then-minister of finance Pravin Gordhan impressed the nation when he delivered his medium term budget policy statement (MTBPS). Gordhan announced, among other developments, that severe austerity measures were to be put in place to cut down on wild spending. Today his successor Nhlanhla Nene presents his first medium-term budget, also known Read more >

CORRUPTION NEWS

Van Vuuren defiant at Seriti Commission

By Lee-Ann Alfreds Hennie van Vuuren, the arms deal critic who withdrew from the Arms Procurement Commission in August, appeared before it on Monday, 20 October, as instructed. The week before, Van Vuuren told Corruption Watch that "I have been summonsed to appear on 20 October and will be at the Arms Procurement Commission at Read more >

CORRUPTION NEWS

R400-million firearm control system in shambles

By Daneel Knoetze First published on GroundUp Pressure is mounting on the police to sort out problems with a R400-million firearms control system, 10 years after the contract to develop it was signed with Pretoria-based company Waymark Infotech. In its successful bid for the contract in 2003, Waymark proposed an IT system which would enable Read more >

CORRUPTION NEWS

WJP is no lightweight operation

Statement on allegations made against the Wits Justice Project at the Oscar Pistorius sentencing hearing, 16 October, by Acting National Commissioner Zach Modise The Wits Justice Project was disturbed to hear the unfounded allegations made against it by Zach Modise, the acting national commissioner of the Department of Correctional Services (DCS). These allegations were made Read more >

HEROES & ZEROES

Taxpayers’ money not spent on water service in Madibeng

The municipal management of Madibeng, in the North West, is not doing its best with taxpayers’ money. This is the municipality that was in the news earlier in the year when water-related service delivery protests resulted in several deaths, some at the hands of police. It seems that not much has changed, as some residents Read more >

CORRUPTION NEWS

Housing indaba explores pressing issues

Government has spent R2-billion to date, rebuilding or refurbishing houses built as part of its national human settlements programme. This amount, says human settlements minister Lindiwe Sisulu, is all that government is prepared to pay, and the cost of fixing the shoddy work done by crooked contractors will not be borne by taxpayers. Sisulu was Read more >

CORRUPTION NEWS

The best of times and the worst of times

By Valencia Talane As the saying goes, “what do you give someone who already has everything?” If the person has pioneered the fight for the respect of the country’s Constitution and all that it represents, and holds government leadership accountable on all fronts, you reward them by recognising their efforts and sharing this on a Read more >