SA Anti-Corruption Agency Says 10,000 Have Spoken Against Abuse of Power

In its fourth annual report, in which it encourages South Africans to speak up against corruption, Corruption Watch has identified the most flagrant hotspots in South Africa as schools as well as traffic and licensing departments.

In the report released this week, titled “Amp up the Volume” – the agency said that over the past four years it had received tip-offs of corruption from 10,573 citizens by December 2015, and its latest campaign is for more people to “Speak Up”.

“Follow their lead and let us know about the big and the small. We’ll make the waves,” it said.

Corruption Watch defines corruption as “The abuse of public resources or public power for personal gain.”

In the report for 2015, the watchdog body said that 16 percent of all corruption reports came from schools, 12 percent from traffic and licensing, then immigration (6 percent ), housing (5 percent) and healthcare (3 percent).

Fifty percent of the reports were generated in Gauteng, followed by KwaZulu-Natal (12 percent), with the other provinces at between 5 percent and 7 percent, and Northern Cape at 2 percen.

Corruption Watch said this did not mean Gauteng was the most corrupt province, but was due to the fact that it was the most populous province and that the agency had developed constructive relationship with bodies in the province such as the Johannesburg Metro Police and the Gauteng Department of Education, among others.

“As in previous years, abuse of power made up the bulk of corruption reports at 38 percent, followed by bribery at 20 percent and procurement corruption at 14 percent of the total,” the agency said.

Corruption Watch has participated in numerous high-profile cases, and continues to do so, including the Nkandla case that reached the Constitutional Court and the case against the head of the SABC, Hlaudi Motsoeneng, among others. (See the report’s link at the end of the story.)

In his message with the report, Corruption Watch chairman Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane said,  “To the shame of us older generations, it is young people who must now embark on the unenviable task of undoing the damage that we have bequeathed them, and of creating new ways of being in the future.”

He went on to say, however, “I am hopeful for this country, and have faith in the ordinary men, women and young people – some not so ordinary – who are committed to an equal, non-racial and just society that has successfully thrown off the mantle of the past and all that continues to threaten it.”

Corruption Watch’s hotline is (080) 0023456. For the full report.