UPDATE: The commission announced on 26 August that it will not, after all, be able to commence hearings on 1 September. Delays in the procurement of critical infrastructure, the commission further revealed, is the cause. Two senior justice department officials have reportedly been suspended because of this. The Judicial Commission of Inquiry into criminality, political Read more >
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Image: Wikimedia Commons By Ivor ChipkinFirst published on The Conversation: Africa After South Africa’s first democratic elections in 1994, there was significant optimism about police reform in the country. Impressive steps were taken to bring the South African Police Service under civilian control and to create a service responsive to calls for assistance from the Read more >
President Cyril Ramaphosa has gazetted the upcoming Madlanga inquiry into law enforcement corruption. The gazette also includes the terms of reference which lay out the scope of the inquiry, and other regulations which guide its work. Ramaphosa established the “Judicial Commission of Inquiry into criminality, political interference, and corruption in the Criminal Justice System arising Read more >
Corruption Watch (CW) is disappointed that President Cyril Ramaphosa has taken so long to announce the establishment of a Judicial Commission of Inquiry to probe the allegations of criminal infiltration into law enforcement agencies in South Africa, as he finally did on Sunday 13 July 2025. That this action comes only now, after the grave Read more >
By David Bruce, independent researcher and ISS consultantFirst published on ISS Today One of the biggest challenges facing South African Minister of Police Senzo Mchunu, is the fragmented character of policing in the country. In metropolitan areas in particular, various local, provincial, and national agencies with overlapping mandates perform policing functions. Effective crime responses require Read more >
South Africans have a problem with their police. This is a long-standing and well-documented situation, and Corruption Watch is just one organisation that has done extensive research and analysis in this area. Our police campaign ran for several years, and our online police tool Veza (a colloquial term for ‘reveal’ or ‘expose’) allows users to Read more >
Corruption Watch has followed the Richard Mdluli case almost since the day the organisation launched. For years Mdluli, the former head of police crime intelligence, had evaded justice relating to charges of, among others, murder, attempted murder, and assault, and in a separate case, of corruption, fraud, and money-laundering. The former head of police crime Read more >
In November 2023 we reported on a new project by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC), which would monitor crime activity in the Western Cape (WC) province, which struggles with crime like many other areas in the country. The first issue of the Western Cape Gang Monitor, released in October, was based on Read more >
By Walter Kemp First published on GI-TOC Organised crime is moving up the international agenda. People and governments are becoming increasingly concerned about violence and instability associated with criminality. The recent crises in Haiti and Ecuador are cases in point. These are accompanied by a wide array of emerging threats from synthetic drugs to piracy Read more >