Arms deal critics are not the ones on trial

By Lee-Ann Alfreds He is prepared to face the consequences of his actions – which include being jailed – as he genuinely believed he had no other choice. These were the sentiments of arms deal critic Hennie van Vuuren, after he refused to testify at the Arms Procurement Commission. Explaining his decision, which sent shockwaves Read more >

High Court judgment will help clarify Protector’s powers

Corruption Watch welcomes the Western Cape High Court decision in the matter between the Democratic Alliance and the SABC, particularly the findings in relation to SABC chairperson Hlaudi Motsoeneng. We are pleased that both Motsoeneng and the SABC board are being held to account for their actions and in some instances, failure to act. More Read more >

Call on government to walk its anti-corruption talk

If the South African government is indeed committed to fighting corruption, the budget allocated to the Office of the Public Protector needs to increase, according to a statement issued today by the Institute for Security Studies (ISS). In his medium term budget policy statement in Parliament on 22 October, finance minister Nhlanhla Nene noted that Read more >

Unmask the Corrupt campaign page – South Africa

South Africa, like numerous other countries, has a strong legal framework of anti-corruption laws, but their implementation is not robust, and perpetrators are seldom punished. Those who engage in corruption are easily able to hide their ill-gotten gains in secret companies or those with opaque corporate ownership structures, or by laundering the proceeds into luxury goods Read more >

What’s at the core of the nuclear puzzle?

Dear Corruption Watch, I am confused. I thought that procuring a nuclear power plant required a public tender process, but then the Russian company selling us the goods issues a press release saying it's a done deal? What exactly is the deal? And is it possible or desirable to undertake a procurement exercise on this Read more >

SABC misspends billions, named zero again

Parliament’s portfolio committees have their fair share of drama when calling to account government departments and entities on their performance. When the SABC appeared before the communications portfolio committee this week, it wasn’t just the public broadcaster’s whopping R3.3-billion in irregular expenditure, but also the reason for this financial fiasco that boggled their minds. Thus Read more >

South Africa lags behind in enforcing international anti-corruption commitments

South Africa has once again failed to make any progress in enforcing key international commitments that are aimed at curbing the global export of corruption and making foreign bribery a crime, Corruption Watch reported today. In its latest progress report, Exporting Corruption, on enforcement of the OECD’s Anti-Bribery Convention (adopted in 1997), Transparency International announced Read more >

SA failing to implement OECD convention

Transparency International (TI) today published its annual progress report, titled Exporting Corruption, on the implementation of the OECD anti-bribery convention. Its revelations are thought-provoking, and in South Africa's case, unflattering. In March this year we wrote about the country’s tardiness in prosecuting foreign bribery under the anti-bribery convention of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Read more >