HEROES & ZEROES

Schools corruption in the global spotlight

Transparency International’s (TI) latest report reveals that schools corruption is not just a South African problem, but a global one. The Global Corruption Report: Education shows that corruption is rampant in the education sector around the world, in both basic and higher education. Corruption Watch has made schools corruption its focus for 2013, for good Read more >

HEROES & ZEROES

Phiyega not convincing on crime stats

Despite the police service punting the annual crime statistics, released on 19 September, as an improvement in many areas, they still paint a bleak picture. In fact, said the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), these are the worst figures in a decade. In addition, they don’t tell us much about the true state of corruption Read more >

HEROES & ZEROES

Public works department squanders money

The Department of Public Works is our zero today for admitting to improper spending of almost R4-billion in public funds. Speaking at a joint meeting of Scopa and the public works portfolio committee on Wednesday, deputy minister Jeremy Cronin shared information on improper spending by his department. Cronin confirmed that between 2009 and March 2013, Read more >

HEROES & ZEROES

Government managers are letting the country down

This week we have a hero amongst a whole lot of zeroes. Earlier this year we reported on the South African public’s perception of government corruption – in our article we revealed that, according to Transparency International’s global corruption barometer, 74% of respondents in South Africa believe that public officials and civil servants are corrupt. Read more >

HEROES & ZEROES

SIU recoups millions in stolen state funds

Our hero this week is the Special Investigating Unit, which recently announced that it had recovered R181-million in stolen state funds by stopping dodgy payments to grant beneficiaries, including those benefiting from low-cost housing and social pensions systems. It has also returned these funds to the various government departments and municipalities which suffered the losses. Read more >

HEROES & ZEROES

IEC lease saga gives us a hero+zero

For exposing the irregular Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) lease deal this week, we honour the public protector’s office for forging ahead with its mandate of demanding accountability from public leaders. We make our zero IEC chair Advocate Pansy Tlakula, whose undeclared conflict of interest and flouting of procurement processes were at the heart of Public Read more >

HEROES & ZEROES

School staff speak out

Our heroes this week are the staff and governing body members at Berea Primary School in Johannesburg – here is the article as it appeared in The Star: By Nontobeko Mtshali The principal of Berea Primary School, Sheila Nankoo, is facing serious allegations. These include buying school supplies at inflated prices from preferred suppliers without Read more >

HEROES & ZEROES

AG gets it right

By Valencia Talane Our hero this week has led with integrity and highlighted the sorry state of financial management at municipal level. In his most recent report on local government for the 2011/12 financial year, delivered earlier this week, he revealed that out of 278 municipalities in the country, only nine got clean audits. Our Read more >

HEROES & ZEROES

Ethics committee bares all the teeth it has

Our hero this week has censured the former minister of communications Dina Pule for misleading parliament and denying her romantic ties with a man who allegedly made millions from deals with the communications department while she was at its helm. Pule was found guilty yesterday by the parliamentary ethics committee for failing to disclose the Read more >