The inside scoop on corruption in SA

Corruption Watch has released its second annual report. The publication, which for the first two weeks will only be accessible online at the new Corruption Watch Connected community platform, reveals that the watchdog organisation has received a total of 5 482 reports of alleged corruption in the two years since its inception. Of these, 2 262 Read more >

Teachers also frustrated by corruption

Corruption is one of the most difficult challenges facing the education system today, reports an article in today’s Daily Sun. The article is based on data gathered by Corruption Watch since it started its schools campaign in January 2013. The purpose of the campaign was to expose the types of underhanded dealings that are crippling the Read more >

Corruption fuels poor service delivery

Although the basic right to sufficient water is enshrined in South Africa’s Constitution, gaining access to that clean water has been a long struggle for millions of people. The struggle is still happening, and it’s a crucial driver of uprisings in South Africa today. A 2012 study by the South African Water Research Commission confirms Read more >

Excessive force not always necessary

Our zeroes this week are the police officers who assaulted and arrested a Daily Sun journalist for taking photos of officers allegedly involved in soliciting bribes. They also jailed him, and when he got his cellphone back the pictures had been deleted. The officers have denied all the allegations but we have to ask: why Read more >

A blow for media freedom?

Reports in the press over the last few days have revealed that police officers in Rustenburg arrested and assaulted a newspaper journalist for taking photographs of officers allegedly involved in corrupt activities. This is the same town where Moss Phakoe was murdered after he tried to blow the whistle on corruption he had uncovered in Read more >

Download our new schools e-book

We've just published a new e-book, based largely on our schools campaign, which started at the beginning of the 2013 academic year. Monitoring of schools was a major focus for us last year – through 2012, from our launch in January up to the beginning of the schools campaign we had received more than 60 reports of Read more >

Shady past, good job

​Our zero this week is the government, for not living up to claims of fighting corruption. This week it appointed a new mayoral committee member in Madibeng municipality – and he was previously one of the guilty parties in the Travelgate scandal of 2006/2006. The thieves – MPs and travel agents – ran a scam involving fraudulent travel arrangements Read more >

The arms deal – new mini-site

Formally known as the Strategic Defence Package, the arms deal, to use its notorious nickname, was a multi-billion-rand military acquisition project finalised in 1999 by the South African government. If allegations of large-scale bribery and corruption currently under investigation by a top-level commission are proven true, it will be the biggest corruption scandal in the Read more >

Corruption hinders SA’s economic freedom

The 2014 Index of Economic Freedom, published recently by Washington’s Heritage Foundation in partnership with the Wall Street Journal, shows that corruption in South Africa is having an impact on economic freedom in the country. The index probes 10 freedoms in 186 countries and for the 2014 survey, most data covers the second half of 2012 Read more >