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.
Proceedings at the parallel probes into allegations of criminality in the justice system took a turn for the startling in week 5 – from the explosive testimony of former police minister Bheki Cele before the parliamentary ad hoc committee looking into the allegations brought to light by KwaZulu-Natal provincial commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi in July, to the accounts of three in-camera witnesses before the Madlanga commission, also probing the same.
South Africa, having made “significant progress in improving its AML/CFT regime”, has been removed from the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) grey list. The country was placed on the list of jurisdictions under increased monitoring in 2023, and in the months since has worked closely with the FATF to tighten up and rectify the deficiencies identified in its anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing framework.
The Special Investigating Unit invites stakeholders to contribute their inputs on the Draft National Corruption Risk and Prevention Framework, which supports the National Anti-Corruption Strategy. The deadline is Friday, 7 November 2025 – an extension from the previous deadline of 24 October. The framework is founded on a risk-based approach to corruption, with the emphasis on prevention.
As South Africa begins to look ahead to local government elections in 2026, a recent symposium on political party funding, hosted by the Independent Electoral Commission, brought together key stakeholders to assess progress in the four years since the promulgation of what is now known as the Political Funding Act. The event also aimed to explore how to strengthen the country’s democratic framework in this regard.
In August this year Corruption Watch successfully challenged the validity of the 2022 appointment of five commissioners to the Commission for Gender Equality. The Constitutional Court declared those appointments to be invalid and instructed Parliament to rerun the process. The Portfolio Committee on Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities is now preparing to run, from 1 December to 23 January, a series of adverts calling for new nominations.
The commission dealt this week with the challenge by News24 and Daily Maverick, brought in the interests of transparency, to the in camera ruling that was to apply. The parties reached a compromise on the witness appearing at the beginning of the week – agreeing to a system that would see the witness testify remotely and an intermediary relay their responses – and accepted the need for the testimony in the later part of the week to be held behind closed doors.
So far, 325 submissions have been received in response to a call for submissions to the parliamentary ad hoc committee set up to investigate the allegations of Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi. The deadline is 17 October. Meanwhile, the committee has also announced an extension of its term from the end of October to 28 November which, members say, will allow it to properly execute its mandate.
South Africa’s Prevention of Organised Crime Act is designed to dismantle the core ranks at the centre of criminal entities, says the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime – but it does not cover the secondary networks of enablers who are vital to the smooth running of organised crime groups. The organisation, in a new report, proposes legislative amendments that will fill this gap and criminalise the activities of enablers who knowingly provide support to crime syndicates.