Corruption Watch strongly refutes President Cyril Ramaphosa’s claim, made yesterday on 702, that corruption has gone down under his watch. Furthermore, we refute the president’s misleading statement that we said the same, and we object to being referenced in this way as part of an electioneering campaign.
The Constitutional Court yesterday handed down judgment in the IEC/MK Party case which contested former president Jacob Zuma’s eligibility to stand for election to the National Assembly as a member of the party. The court ruled that Zuma was ineligible for such an appointment in terms of Section 47(1)(e) of the Constitution, because of his 15-month jail sentence for contempt of court in 2021. Corruption Watch was one of four amici curiae supporting the IEC.
Former state security minister Bongani Bongo has been embroiled in corruption cases for several years. Recently accusations against Bongo, relating to money laundering and corruption, were discharged – but the former minister still has to answer to charges of offering a bribe to the evidence leader in Parliament’s Eskom inquiry in 2017. The discharged charges relate to allegations of inflating the costs of land, worth around R74-million, which was sold to two Mpumalanga municipalities.
A change in political leadership would make little difference to development without a major reform of the public service, writes political science researcher and lecturer Dr Marcel Nagar. However, South Africans going to the polls on 29 May would do well to consider at least getting the right people into those leadership positions, so that the reform can begin in earnest.
Politicians often play on voters’ desperation and sensitivities to garner support, turning up at strategic times with food parcels and free t-shirts to distribute to vulnerable people, or invoking veiled threats and stereotypes in their messaging to appeal to gullible constituencies.
A new research report, released today by Corruption Watch, highlights the perceptions and experiences of corruption among ordinary people in South Africa. The report shows, among others, a widespread belief that government is not doing enough to address corruption in the provision of basic services, and a clear demand for stricter consequences for corrupt behaviour of government officials.
How is it possible, writes Kirsten Pearson, that in a climate of corruption, where there are regular news articles about allegations of corruption in public procurement processes, there are no suppliers on the tender defaulters register? Is this because of bureaucratic bungling, failure of enforcement, a lack of will, or something else?
Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan is no stranger to the importance of Parliament’s governance structures, having been part of them since the first parliament of the democratic dispensation in 1994. Why then, has he not navigated the controversy around the Takatso matter with the exemplary conduct of someone with such vast experience?
Civil society organisations have called for respect for the law, ahead of the Constitutional Court hearing on Friday 10 May, in which the Independent Electoral Commission is appealing an Electoral Court judgment that dismissed an objection to the National Assembly candidacy of former president Jacob Zuma. The Ahmed Kathrada Foundation, Corruption Watch, and the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution are appearing as amici curiae.