More South Africans believe politicians are corrupt
Forty percent of South Africans think parliamentarians and councillors are corrupt, according to the Afrobarometer survey, the Star reported.
The figure increased from 2008, when 25% of South Africans thought "almost all" or "most" members of Parliament were involved in corruption, according to Dr Cherrel Africa of the University of the Western Cape, who presented the results of the survey in Durban on Tuesday.
According to the study, coordinated by the Institute for Democracy in South Africa, most South Africans do not go to their councillor when they have a problem. Seventy-two percent of people in urban areas, and 74% of those in rural areas, said they never contacted councillors.
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Patrol boat decision still all at sea
There is no clarity on just who will be running the marine patrol and research vessels in South Africa’s oceans from next Sunday, but the bungling of the tender procedure by the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Department has led to a flurry of legal activity involving the company which lost it, the company which won and then lost it and another company which has been accused of defaming the latter.
And now the department has called for a committee of inquiry into the mess, which according to Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson would specifically look “at processes and procedures relating to tenders with the view of determining whether there were in fact any irregularities in the chain of procurement, including maladministration, fraud or corruption, by government employees and/or the private sector and/or both”.
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MTN rocked by Iran licence bribery scandal
Johannesburg-listed MTN Group is in crisis management mode trying to limit reputational damage after Turkcell filed an explosive lawsuit in the Washington Federal Court on Thursday morning (South Africa time), implicating government officials and executives from Africa's largest mobile phone operator in a bribery and sophisticated weapons scandal.
Attaching documents it alleges are internal MTN memos, Turkcell claims in the court papers that MTN bribed officials, arranged meetings for Iran with South African leaders and promised Iran weapons and United Nations votes in exchange for a stake in Irancell to provide mobile phone services in the Middle East country.
It is now seeking compensation for damages, claiming that MTN's actions caused "harm" to both Turkcell and its shareholders.
Read the full article here.
New RDP housing scam exposed
Emergency eviction letters have been served on eight families who had been illegally occupying RDP houses in Chief Mogale on the West Rand.
From October 2010, housing allocation in the Chief Mogale Housing Project in Kagiso had been marred by allegations of corruption and fraud involving a criminal syndicate that includes unscrupulous housing officials who sell RDP houses to unsuspecting and desperate families for between R15, 000 and R45, 000.
The area has subsequently become flooded by illegal occupants at the expense of desperate beneficiaries, most of whom are living in shacks.
Sowetan has also learnt that some of the houses have been put up for rentals.
Read the full article here.
Official named in Manase report quits
The eThekwini municipality’s controversial head of housing Cogi Pather, has resigned.
The Mercury can confirm that Pather tendered his resignation to municipal authorities earlier this year, but it has not been made public.
Insiders say he can still be seen in the corridors of city hall as he has not yet had the nod from his superiors to clear his desk.
The Mercury understands that Pather wanted to leave the municipality in 2011, but was apparently told to hold on while the council waited for the release of a damning report into the city’s finances by forensic auditors, Manase and Associates. Read the full article here.
