In this article, Transparency International highlights the anti-corruption work of four courageous women around the world, including a young attorney who, until very recently, was one of our colleagues at CW.
The need for relevant authorities to have access to beneficial ownership records was not provided for in South Africa’s anti-money laundering framework, writes Eric Jordaan for Moneyweb, and this contributed to the country’s recent greylisting by the Financial Action Task Force. However, recent amendments to the Companies Act aim to regulate the disclosure by companies of those who are ultimately (directly or indirectly) in control of the company.
Now retired, judges Willie Seriti and Hendrick Musi presided over a deeply flawed arms deal commission of inquiry 10 years ago, and ever since then have sought to evade accountability for their questionable conduct. Now, a High Court judgment has dismissed their frivolous application arguing that retired judges should not be included in the Judicial Service Commission Act’s definition of a judge and therefore should not be subject to disciplinary procedures.
The Health Sector Anti-Corruption Forum (HSACF) – of which Corruption Watch is a member – is playing an important role in uncovering corruption in South Africa’s health sector. Since 2019, 29 allegations of corruption that were referred to the HSACF resulted in formal investigations by the Special Investigating Unit, and over 100 officials have been referred for disciplinary action. In addition, the forum has referred 30 cases to the National Prosecuting Authority.
Journalists are being murdered and intimidated across the African continent, writes Ghanaian investigative journo Anas Aremeyaw Anas for The Guardian – but impunity ensures that those responsible are not held to account. “In 2022, close to 60 journalists in Africa were assaulted, imprisoned, abducted, or forced into exile.”
A new report, The Business of Killing, released by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, sheds light on the proliferation of targeted killings by paid hitmen in South Africa, drawing from the latest Global Organized Crime Index, as part of GI-TOC’s Global Assassination Monitor project. The aim is to construct an “evidence base that can provide a platform for a call to action”.
We cannot take it as a given that state capture has been buried, writes Corruption Watch chairperson Mzukisi Qobo. Therefore, in its second decade the organisation plans to double its efforts to push back against the scourge of corruption. The next phase of its work will focus on pressing for radical change in how public institutions work, how they serve the public, and how public officials relate with an array of social actors, including civil society and business.
The parliamentary portfolio committee on women, youth and persons with disabilities is calling for written comments on the National Council on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide Bill, which is currently before the National Assembly. The bill seeks to establish an independent, multi-sectoral national council which will co-ordinate and implement a coherent national strategic plan to end gender-based violence and femicide.
The recent shocking double murder of prominent insolvency practitioner Cloete Murray and his son Tom is yet another atrocity in an ever-lengthening list of those who are violently silenced, writes Corruption Watch’s executive director Karam Singh. Professionals working to enforce consequences for financial misconduct must now also be included among those requiring special protections.