Posts

Dear Mr President

Dear Mr President I first wrote to you in 2012 asking you to take responsibility for your allegedly corrupt actions. Since then there’s been Guptagate, Public Protector spats, employment opportunities for your family, and Nkandlagate. You have operated with impunity, shifting the blame and avoiding responsibility. I know this letter will cause many to think Read more >

Secrecy a threat to our democracy

The Right2Know (R2K) Campaign has today released its Secret State of the Nation Report 2014, which addresses certain trends, patterns and problems around secrecy in South Africa. The country is grappling with ever-greater threats to access to information, such as the Protection of State Information Bill (the infamous Secrecy Bill), which is not yet signed Read more >

President Zuma a key hurdle to fighting corruption

President Zuma’s response to Parliament regarding the R200-million upgrade is yet another demonstration of his disturbingly low commitment to fighting corruption in South Africa. “While we don't think that history is made by individuals, President Zuma’s personal conduct has clearly become a major obstacle to fighting corruption,” said David Lewis, executive director of Corruption Watch. Read more >

Nkandla: Zuma’s report four months late

President Jacob Zuma has submitted his long-overdue response to the public protector’s Nkandla report. When Thuli Madonsela released her final report in March, she stipulated that Zuma must respond to the National Assembly within 14 days – he did not. Initially Zuma had said he would wait for the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) to finalise Read more >

Mmanaledi Mataboge: taking on the big guns

By Valentia Talane Mmanaledi Mataboge is the Mail & Guardian's political editor. She studied journalism at the Tshwane University of Technology, which back then was known as the Technikon Northern Transvaal, and since then has built a successful career in radio, television and newspaper, with City Press, M&G, the SABC, and e.tv. Mataboge names City Press Read more >

Nkandla in the wind

Source: The Economist “I am often asked by people from India and Russia, ‘Why do you worry?’”, says David Lewis, head of Corruption Watch, a privately funded watchdog based in Johannesburg. Why indeed? South Africa sits in the middle of international rankings of corruption. It is not Sweden but nor is it Zimbabwe. It has Read more >

Parliament, part 2 – integrity and accountability needed

By Valencia Talane “Parliament has become dysfunctional in that I don’t know who my MP is.” This is a quote attributed to social justice activist Zackie Achmat in People’s Power People’s Parliament a magazine distributed as part of a civil society conference held under the same title in 2012. The aim of the conference was Read more >

Community could have benefited from Nkandla

Public protector Thuli Madonsela yesterday released her long awaited final report into the alleged irregular and excessive expenditure on security upgrades at Nkandla, President Jacob Zuma’s private residence in KwaZulu-Natal. Madonsela’s investigation is not the first to have been conducted on the controversial construction project. In October 2012 public works minister Thulas Nxesi ordered an Read more >