The mammoth task of professionalising the public service is gathering momentum. The National Assembly recently passed the Public Administration Management Amendment Bill and the Public Service Amendment Bill, while the Department of Public Service and Administration has also published a new directive to guide departments in implementing the professionalisation framework which was launched in October 2022.
Corruption in South Africa’s private healthcare system is about to be exposed, says health minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi. Investigations will focus on medical aid fraud, inflated prices for procedures and supplies, and the growing problem of fraudulent medico-legal or malpractice claims against the state.
Special Investigating Unit head Andy Mothibi spoke candidly about South Africa’s broken procurement system and the challenges the unit faces on a daily basis in challenging the relentless corruption within and exploitation of the system. In a recent interview with News24, he revealed that he and his team face not only pushback against reforms but also threats to their safety, in an onslaught that continues on a daily basis.
South Africa’s transition to greater use of renewable energies, such as solar, is being hampered by a number of factors, says economics professor Roula Inglesi-Lotz in a recent research paper titled Exploring the impact of institutional quality to South Africa’s transition to renewables. “Chief among them is corruption, which is affecting the quality of institutions.”
The SIU, GIZ, and GIBS have entered into a ground-breaking collaboration in the field of of digital and AI-based anti-corruption interventions in South Africa. A memorandum of understanding signed recently between the three partners aims to prevent and combat corruption through data analytics.
During a recent webinar titled Structuring, Negotiating and Managing Mining Concessions, experts from Botswana, the DRC, Zambia, and South Africa, among others, tackled the question of whether Africa’s mining sector has all the requisite best standards in place to ensure both adequate investment and sustainable impact on the environment and the livelihood of communities affected by mining.
The role of political parties in South Africa’s newly established government of national unity should not be politically driven, but rather people-driven, encapsulating the national development agenda. This is one of the sentiments that came out of a recent National School of Government webinar titled Making Coalitions and Governments of National Unity Work: The Role of Professional Bureaucracies.
This year’s African Anti-Corruption Day, held annually on 11 July, is commemorated under the theme Effective Whistleblowers Protection Mechanism: A Critical Tool in the Fight Against Corruption. The African Union, under whose auspices the occasion falls, urges its members to highlight the significance of whistle-blowing in combating corruption and provide a space for stakeholders to reflect on the challenges, good practices, and recommendations to enhance whistle-blowing.
Corruption Watch has learned of the tragic death of the 13-year-old son of our colleague in Palestine. We, and the Transparency International community, extend our deepest condolences to the family in this time of indescribable grief. The global organisation calls for an immediate ceasefire and urgent, meaningful steps toward durable peace.