Posts

Karoo town speaks out on corruption

By Jennifer Cohen In the small Karoo village of Prince Albert, sitting quietly at the foot of the Swartberg mountains, Every Voice Matters.   Or so residents have come to believe. After a dream convinced her, Hélène Smit, director of Depth Leadership Trust, decided to engage people living there, asking them, “If your voice could Read more >

Public Works comes clean on misuse of public funds

The Department of Public Works has confirmed extensive misuse of public funds within its ranks – at a media briefing last week, Minister Thulas Nxesi said that investigations had uncovered a shocking R35-billion in wasteful expenditure, some of it going back 13 years. Public Works (DPW) is responsible for managing the accommodation needs of government Read more >

Dear Mr President

Dear Mr President I first wrote to you in 2012 asking you to take responsibility for your allegedly corrupt actions. Since then there’s been Guptagate, Public Protector spats, employment opportunities for your family, and Nkandlagate. You have operated with impunity, shifting the blame and avoiding responsibility. I know this letter will cause many to think Read more >

Corruption: We’re gatvol

By Sipho Masondo First published in City Press Until it becomes “embarrassing to be caught with one’s hand in the cookie jar”, South Africa is never going to beat corruption. This is according to a Durban civil servant, who’s among the 70% of South Africans who don’t believe we’ll ever stop corruption, new research by Read more >

Can you be both loyal and honest?

By Janine Erasmus Part one of our series defined the practises of nepotism, cronyism, patronage and cadre deployment, and discussed their effect on the ethics culture generally. In the second and final part we deal with the dilemma of loyalty vs honesty, and explain why appointing unsuitable people can end up costing a lot of Read more >

Civil society asks for dissolution of arms commission

More than 30 local social justice organisations, including Corruption Watch, have issued a joint call for real arms deal accountability. Read their statement below: The 1999 arms deal represents up to R70-billion that should have been spent on housing, education, health and South Africa’s other pressing social needs. The arms deal corrupted our politics, weakened Read more >

Negotiating the RDP rules and regulations

“We will take back those houses if you sell them for profit, because we build them for a purpose. Put it away safely.” This was reportedly said earlier this year to a group of residents of the Sol Plaatjie municipality, who had gathered to witness the handing over of title deeds to beneficiaries of over Read more >

TI: national security, transparency can co-exist

South Africa is one of 15 countries featured in a new report from Transparency International UK’s Defence and Security Programme. Titled Classified Information (A review of current legislation across 15 countries & the EU), the report was launched by TI’s Indonesian chapter and is the latest in the global organisation’s Corruption Risks series. It deals Read more >

Maphatsoe must be fired, Mr President

Following allegations levelled at the public protector, Thuli Madonsela, by the deputy minister of defence and military veterans Kebby Maphatsoe, and the release of his so-called apology yesterday, Corruption Watch calls for President Jacob Zuma to demonstrate clearly where government stands by immediately firing Maphatsoe. CW’s executive director David Lewis comments: “Government purports to ‘distance Read more >