The world is at a crossroads when it comes to dealing with illicit economies, says a new GI-TOC research report on the global situation. Many types of organised crime show surges of growth while resilience takes a beating, lagging behind evolving crime threats. And in South Africa, criminality is on the rise while resilience remains stagnant.
Corruption Watch, with Social Change Assistance Trust and Transparency International and co-funded by the European Union, is driving enhanced accountability in South Africa through the Strengthening Action Against Corruption (SAAC) Project. This initiative specifically targets community advice offices/civil society organisations in the Eastern Cape province, equipping them with the knowledge and resources needed to identify and address corruption, and mobilise their communities.
Not much time is left for you to nominate your Anti-Crime and Corruption Hero for 2025! The annual poll, organised by the OCCRP, normally ‘honours’ the world’s most corrupt people so as to shine the spotlight on their evil deeds – but this year it’s corruption fighters around the globe who will be celebrated and profiled. Will we see a South African victor for the first time? Nominations close on 30 November.
It’s like something out of the movies: rogue killer cops, poor governance of labour practices, blatant favouritism from the top, and death threats for those who dare to stop all of it. This is what the Madlanga commission heard has been happening in the City of Ekurhuleni as witnesses spent the week recounting their experience of a rogue deputy police chief who enjoyed unfettered protection from the top municipal office.
Civil society organisations have asked Parliament to investigate the failure of worker equity schemes. Corruption Watch, the Legal Resources Centre, Surplus People Project, and the Support Centre for Land Change met with the Portfolio Committee on Land Reform and Rural Development on 12 November to ask for its intervention in long-standing complaints about these schemes.
Leading civil society and media organisations have written to Chief Justice Mandisa Maya to express grave concern over the recent gagging order imposed on Open Secrets. The organisations say this “strikes at the very transparency on which public confidence in the judiciary depends” and urge the chief justice to consider measures to prevent the excessive or gratuitous use of such tactics.
Corruption Watch, Legal Resources Centre, Support Centre for Land Change, and Surplus People Project appear before the Portfolio Committee on Land Reform and Rural Development this week to highlight the failure of farm worker equity schemes which have, for the most part, benefited only farm owners. The civil society partners will call on Parliament to take decisive action to address this long-standing injustice.
The latest parliamentary oversight report, published recently by Parlimeter and OUTA, reveals progress, but also worrying inconsistencies. “Oversight remains reactive rather than preventive, corruption is exposed but seldom punished, and public trust continues to waver as many South Africans still perceive Parliament as a space of performance rather than reform.” The report makes several recommendations with a view to addressing these gaps.
Over 140 organisations and individuals across the country have come together to condemn the violent incidents that have destroyed valuable property and wiped out investment at Fort Hare University, and to reclaim and safeguard this historic institution. The organisations call for democratic values to be restored and upheld.