East Cape local government rewards mediocrity

Mere days after slamming local government in Eastern Cape because not a single municipality in the province had received a clean audit in the last financial year, local government MEC Mlibo Qoboshiyane stood in front of a room of municipal managers and heads, and congratulated them for their “excellency” in financial management, at the annual Read more >

Number of national key points up by 54% in five years

In the last five years there has been a 54% increase in the number of “national key points” across the country, says Right2Know in its recently released Secret State of the Nation report. The increase has happened under the National Key Points Act – which has been referred to as an “apartheid-era” national security law. Read more >

Access to information Act ‘failing’

South Africa’s access-to-information provisions appear to be failing as two out of three formal requests for information are refused, says Right2Know in its recently released Secret State of the Nation report, detailing the state of secrecy and openness in the country. “If compliance with the Promotion of Access to Information Act (Paia) is a litmus Read more >

Newsletter for our partners: February 2013

Dear Friends, Corruption Watch welcomes you to its first monthly newsletter to keep you up to date with developments at the organisation. Introduction Last month marked a year since CW was launched. We are pleased to share with you news that we are making meaningful strides as detailed in our first annual report. The 3 Read more >

Minister’s role may interfere with Hawks work

Are you witnessing corruption but don’t know what to do about it? Ask the team of Corruption Watch experts what to do by writing to: letters@businesstimes.co.za and mark your letter 'Dear Corruption Watch'. Dear Corruption Watch Can you please tell me about the Hawks Bill?  I know Parliament had to redraft it to restructure the Read more >

Engineers set up ‘war chest’ to fight graft

South Africa’s association of consulting engineers this week took the corruption fight into its own hands by saying it would set up a R1-milllion "war chest" to take legal action against municipalities that award tenders to fly-by-night companies. It is also calling on members to reinvigorate whistleblowing on dodgy procedures in the industry so that Read more >

Zuma address: substance lacking

President Jacob Zuma’s 2013 State of the Nation Address, delivered yesterday evening, did not impress much. His message on corruption lacked a critical element of redress – accountability. Zuma did a reasonably good job of hailing the work done by those organs of state tasked with fighting the corruption that has worried many South Africans Read more >

Call to President Zuma ahead of State of the Nation address

In his State of the Nation Address President Jacob Zuma should demonstrate his commitment to accountability and transparency by announcing the release of the Nkandla upgrade report to the public. “If the government wants to be taken seriously in the fight against corruption, details on Nkandla upgrade should be released. Government’s commitment to fighting corruption Read more >

‘Local government the weakest link’

Financial woes plaguing local government create an ideal environment for fraud and corruption to fester, the South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) said this week. This was in reaction to Auditor -General Terence Nombembe’s statement that financial controls in government departments are slipping, particularly in municipalities. He was talking at a public sector forum convened Read more >