FIC amendment bill makes the parly grade

The Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) amendment bill is one step closer to promulgation. Having being tabled in Parliament as long ago as April 2015 by former finance minister Nhlanhla Nene, and sent back and forth a couple of times between President Jacob Zuma and the Standing Committee of Finance, the bill was passed last week Read more >

Public must blow whistles to help us fight corruption

By David Lewis First published in Business Day Corruption is but one of the major challenges confronting SA alongside other arguably more serious problems. Think of poverty, inequality and unemployment. Think of persistent racism. Think of our public education and health systems. Think of our dysfunctional criminal justice institutions and the parlous state of critical Read more >

Deductions from social grants: how it all works

By Erin Torkelson   First published on GroundUp In October 2016, I met a young mother, Thandeka*, who was crying at one of Khayelitsha’s busiest social grant pay points. A Cash Paymaster Services (CPS) official had informed her that she would only receive 26c of her R350 child support grant. Then, because CPS no longer Read more >

CW calls for dismissal of Min. Dlamini over Sassa debacle

CW calls for dismissal of Min. Dlamini over Sassa debacle Corruption Watch, following the failure of the South Africa Social Security Agency (Sassa) to find an alternative service provider to deliver social grants, calls for the minister of social development, Bathabile Dlamini to be sacked for her handling of the matter. The organisation views the Read more >

Parliament: Sassa/CPS setup must be investigated

UPDATE: Sassa has withdrawn its application to the Constitutional Court for an extension of the contract with Cash Paymaster Services. The agency says it will lodge the case again – but time is running out. Read more about this development.   The South African Social Services Agency’s (Sassa) relationship with social grants service provider Cash Read more >

Annual report: public does not tolerate corruption

Today, a month after its fifth birthday, Corruption Watch releases its fifth annual report. The report celebrates the almost 15 000 whistle-blowers who have approached us during the last half a decade, and also features highlights of what was a busy year for the organisation. This large volume of reports clearly indicates that the South Read more >

Shadow Report 2016: public’s right to information not upheld

New research by the Access to Information Network (ATI Network) – formerly known as the Promotion of Access to Information Act (Paia) Civil Society Network – has revealed a shocking dereliction of duties by public and private bodies to realise South Africans’ constitutional right of access to information. The Shadow Report 2016 was compiled with Read more >

Cautious budget reflects political landscape

A lot can happen in a political year, and anyone holding Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan’s last two budget speeches side by side can see evidence of this. Gordhan presented his 2016/17 budget under extreme political pressure on Wednesday – amid some speculation that it may very well be his last – and thus it lacked Read more >

The real risks behind SA’s social grant payment crisis

By Andries du Toit First published on The Conversation Africa The dispute hovering over South Africa’s social grant system and threatening millions of vulnerable beneficiaries with nonpayment creates risks that go far beyond interrupting poor people’s access to desperately needed grants. The failure of the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa), which is responsible for Read more >