HEROES & ZEROES

Cops are the heroes

Valencia Talane The Free State Hawks and the South African Police Service (SAPS) are Corruption Watch’s joint heroes of the week. On Tuesday, the crime fighters arrested nine police officers and six Home Affairs officials stationed at the Caledonspoort border post with Lesotho for corruption. The group is believed to have allowed undocumented travellers from Read more >

PRESS RELEASES

Mdluli case: SJC, CW withdraw application to avoid delaying litigation

Social Justice Coalition (SJC) & Corruption Watch (CW) have formally withdrawn their application to intervene in the matter brought by Freedom Under Law (FUL) against General Richard Mdluli and others. FUL’s application aims to review and set aside the decisions taken to withdraw criminal and disciplinary charges against Mdluli, including the withdrawal of corruption charges. Read more >

CORRUPTION NEWS

How school governing bodies should be run

By Lorraine Louw The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) has released a policy document setting out the rules of school governance, and how schools need to be managed and run. The Basic Financial System for Schools is 80 pages of helpful information designed to assist school governing bodies keep within the law, and ensure well-managed Read more >

CORRUPTION NEWS

Corruption Watch sees spike in schools reports

By Valencia Talane Nepotism, stealing public money and extortion: not really the crimes you’d associate with institutions of learning, but they’re crippling many of our country’s public schools – as recent reports from concerned teachers, parents and community members shows. • Also read Stealing hope from the next generation Corruption Watch has recorded an upsurge Read more >

DEAR CORRUPTION WATCH

Bill gives officials wide powers

Dear Corruption Watch With the new Draft Licensing of Businesses Bill to leave more and more administrative discretion up to public servants, it seems to me that opportunities will multiply for them to ask for ‘contributions’ and/or businesses to offer bribes or other favours. How best can we regulate business appropriately without allowing too much Read more >

HEROES & ZEROES

Public service’s R1-billion failure

By Zaheer Cassim and Nicky Rehbock South Africa’s public service is in our bad books again following damning revelations that financial misconduct in state departments could exceed R1-billion for the 2011/2012 financial year. All this while schools go without vital learning material, desks and flushing toilets; hospitals limp along with shortages of life-saving drugs, linen Read more >

CORRUPTION NEWS

More of your stories: cops bribed with drugs

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: cops being bribed by drug dealers, Free State Agriculture Department officials embezzling funds and tenders being slipped through the back door. Cops bribed by drug dealers Read more >

DEAR CORRUPTION WATCH

Will to root out corruption still a challenge

Dear Corruption Watch, Is there no list somewhere of fraudulent and corrupt employees in government?  Disgraced public officials continue to be 're-deployed'. For instance, a chief director was dismissed for fraud but was still allowed to act as COO in the same department. The same official was then made chief director in local government. How Read more >

HEROES & ZEROES

Secrecy Bill passed by Parliament

The passing of the contentious Protection of State Information Bill – or Secrecy Bill as it has come to be referred to – is an act deserving of Corruption Watch’s (CW) zero-of-the-week status. We join other civil society organisations in expressing disappointment at this turn of events in South Africa’s democracy. With the Bill needing Read more >