Image: Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani International Anti-Corruption Excellence Award.
South Africa’s Dr Marianne Camerer – who is also Corruption Watch’s deputy chairperson – is one of the nine distinguished recipients of this year’s Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani International Anti-Corruption Excellence (ACE) Award. This year’s ceremony is the ninth edition, with 68 laureates already honoured. It took place during the 11th session of the Conference of the States Parties to the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) in Doha, Qatar.
The ACE Award advocates for the importance of tackling corruption and encourages the implementation of the crucial measures set forth in UNCAC. The programme’s mission is to support and inspire efforts in anti-corruption, through awareness, encouragement and challenge. It is organised by the Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption Center of Qatar in partnership with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) under the patronage of Qatari emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.
The ACE awards are bestowed on individuals – including academics, journalists, whistle-blowers, and civic activists – who have made a unique contribution to the fight against corruption, in the following categories:
- Lifetime Achievement / Outstanding Achievement.
- Academic Research and Education.
- Creativity and Youth Participation.
- Innovation / Investigative Journalism.
- Protect Sport From Corruption.
After the ceremony, the 2025 recipients participated in a dedicated panel session, which provided a platform to discuss emerging integrity challenges and highlighted innovative solutions proposed by the laureates.
Expert in governance and integrity
Camerer was honoured in the category of Academic Research and Education. She is a leading expert in integrity and governance with nearly three decades of impact across Africa and beyond. Her early work at the Institute for Security Studies shaped foundational thinking on anti-corruption agencies and whistle-blowing, influencing national policies such as South Africa’s National Anti-Corruption Strategy.
As co-founder of the international NGO Global Integrity, she introduced innovative, evidence-based tools that helped governments, civil society, and researchers assess corruption risks and strengthen accountability systems. She has worked with teams from the Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance at the University of Cape Town to strengthen leadership capacity on the continent.
As a senior lecturer at the Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance, she focuses on ethics, leadership, and accountability, teaching on the leadership modules of the school’s part-time and full-time master’s programme in Development Policy and Practice. She also supervises master’s and PhD students in leadership, accountability, and anti-corruption.
Camerer holds master’s degrees in public policy and political philosophy from Oxford and the University of Stellenbosch respectively, and a PhD in Political Studies from the University of the Witwatersrand. She was selected as a 2005 Yale World Fellow, a prestigious fellowship awarded to emerging leaders from around the world.
Her expertise has supported key UN initiatives on public service ethics, national anti-corruption strategies, and UNODC programme evaluations.
The other South African winner is Andiswa Matikinca, an environmental investigative journalist who has worked with Oxpeckers Investigative Environmental Journalism since 2018. She co-led the groundbreaking 2025 investigation On the Trail of Lithium Smugglers in Southern Africa with Zimbabwean journalist Tatenda Chitagu, also an ACE Award winner for 2025. The investigation uncovered a transnational smuggling network exploiting weak border controls and corrupt officials across Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and South Africa.
Their reporting revealed how illicit traders bypassed Zimbabwe’s 2022 export ban on raw lithium through bribery, forged documents, and local intermediaries, exposing official complicity in undermining lawful mining governance.
Beyond this investigation, Andiswa has managed Oxpeckers’ #MineAlert open-data platform, empowering citizens to track mining accountability, and contributed to #WildEye, which helped uncover corruption-enabled wildlife trafficking networks.
The full list of 2025 winners is:
- Drago Kos from Slovenia – Lifetime / Outstanding Achievement.
- Dr Obiageli Ezekwesili from Nigeria – Lifetime / Outstanding Achievement.
- Prof Nikos Passas from Greece – Academic Research and Education.
- Dr Marianne Camerer from South Africa – Academic Research and Education.
- Gloria Pallares Vinyoles from Spain – Innovation / Journalism Investigation.
- Tatenda Chitagu from Zimbabwe – Innovation / Journalism Investigation.
- Andiswa Matikinca from South Africa – Innovation / Journalism Investigation.
- Marr Nyang from The Gambia – Youth Creativity and Engagement.
- Matiullah Wesa from Afghanistan – Youth Creativity and Engagement.
