Why does South Africa not have a Magnitsky Act?

The Magnitsky Act is an important piece of legislation in the global fight against money laundering and corruption across borders. It was enacted in the US in 2012, after the death in Russian police custody of lawyer and auditor Sergei Magnitsky, who worked with political activist Bill Browder in an investigation into the raid on Read more >

R14bn loss to MIs, but some positive strides being made

The Department of Defence and the South African Post Office (Sapo) are two of the public entities expected to face investigations for their failure to investigate material irregularities (MIs) flighted by the Auditor-General (AG) during audit processes in previous financial years. Sapo was found by the AG to have failed to implement an integrated grants Read more >

Treasury releases Q2 report on local govt revenue and expenditure

Source: South African government National Treasury (NT) has released the local government revenue and expenditure report for the second quarter of the 2023/24 financial year. The report, which applies to the second quarter of the municipal financial year ending on 31 December 2023, covers the performance against the adopted budgets of local government and includes Read more >

The looters living it up from Prasa millions

Image: Ashraf Hendricks/GroundUp By Ra’eesa Pather and Qiqa Nkomo for Open SecretsFirst published on GroundUp This is the second in a series of articles on corruption in Prasa’s dealings with front company Swifambo Rail Leasing. It focuses on the activities of Makhensa Mabunda and Auswell Mashaba, the men who orchestrated the purchase of unusable locomotives Read more >

Scopa-SIU collaboration good for continuity

The fight against corruption in South Africa has received a significant boost in a collaborative effort between Parliament and anti-corruption agency, Special Investigating Unit (SIU). The Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the SIU to ensure continuation in the seventh parliament of cases brought to Scopa by Read more >

Wrap up of the latest from our state capture desk

The ANC has been putting out fires related to its election candidate list – more particularly, relating to members of the party whose names appear on the list despite corruption and other controversies hanging over their heads. Secretary-general Fikile Mbalula hosted a media briefing on Monday 11 March, almost a month after a similar engagement Read more >

The European company that profited from corruption at Prasa

Image: Flickr/GovernmentZA By Ra’eesa Pather and Qiqa Nkomo for Open SecretsFirst published on GroundUp In 2012, a deal was struck that contributed to the near collapse of the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa). The Swifambo deal for 70 locomotives led to billions of rands in losses for Prasa and accelerated the decline of Read more >