Public service needs a shake-up, Mr President

By Kavisha Pillay In a letter published in The Star newspaper earlier this month, President Jacob Zuma congratulated the public servants of South Africa who, he said, were improving the country. While it is commendable that many are indeed hard-working and honest individuals who strive to build the nation, the president paints a somewhat fantastical Read more >

How the lotteries board fights corruption

By Valencia Talane For a small village in Limpopo, a community centre provides shelter, meals and life-skills training, mostly to youth who come from disadvantaged backgrounds. The livelihood of such a centre depends on donations from the public and financial support from organisations that give to charities. The centre was one of more than 700 Read more >

Local municipality is zero

Dr JS Moroka local municipality in Mpumalanga is our zero this week. A procurement officer employed at the municipality is under investigation for allegedly awarding a contract – at an inflated cost – to her husband. Corruption Watch asks: why was this allowed to happen? A mistaken email, followed by speedy reporting by a whistle Read more >

These are your stories: schools in trouble!

Here’s a snapshot of some of the reports* on schools we’ve received from the public recently, so you can get a feel for the kind of trends we’re picking up: an “untouchable” principal on Gauteng’s East Rand, a teacher with a dodgy past at a school near Dundee in KwaZulu-Natal who seems to be pilfering Read more >

These are your stories: clerks syphoning funds!

These are your stories! Here’s a snapshot of some of the corruption reports* we’ve received from the public recently, so you can get a feel for the kind of trends we’re picking up: metro cops in Joburg demanding “lunch money”, a despondent youngster in Mpumalanga who says she failed her learners’ licence because she didn’t Read more >

JS Moroka supporting documents

JS Moroka supporting documents: Selectech’s R2 000 invoice to JK Moroka Municipality for a set of glass vials. Selectech’s agreement to supply Nxobile & Josie with a set of glass vials at a price of R2 000. Purchasing order showing JS Moroka Municipality was buying the same set of glass vials from Nxobile & Josie Read more >

Problems in North West

Municipalities in North West were hailed by the province’s leadership towards the end of 2012 for meeting auditor-general (AG) Terence Nombembe’s deadline for submitting their financial statements for that year – but what was not revealed at the time was that the achievement came with a R29-million bill for taxpayers. On Wednesday, Mail & Guardian Read more >

Probe news sparks worry as poor go unpaid

An anonymous source has leaked Corruption Watch the details of a probe that Minister of Cooperative Governance Richard Baloyi plans to launch into the awarding of tenders for the Community Work Programme (CWP), including that won by Mvula Trust. What Corruption Watch finds strange, though, is that the probe is being overseen by an in-house Read more >

Corruption creates its own political economy in SA

By Mark Heywood, executive director of ­Section 27 This article first appeared in the Mail & Guardian on 5 April 2013. Read the original version here. On the edges of Diepsloot stands a half-completed municipal building. Once intended as a library and offices, it was surrendered to decay before it even came to life. A Read more >