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Thread: Corruption in South Africa

  1. #1
    Site Caretaker Dave A's Avatar
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    Corruption in South Africa

    I'm sitting listening to some youngsters chatting. One of them has just had a birthday and is delighted with his gift from his brother - his drivers licence!

    Sure, the kid has been struggling to pass trying to do it the legal way, and even the testing department is talking about the problems they're having with "consistency." But still - burns my butt. As does this story:
    The deputy director general of the North West department of agriculture, Paul Mogotlhe, has an extraordinarily close relationship with the recipient of a R1,1-million provincial government grant his department approved. It is none other than himself.

    The Mail & Guardian has a copy of the memorandum of agreement, signed in May this year by Mogotlhe both as the government official who authorised the grant and the owner of Thathana Farms, near Zeerust -- the beneficiary.

    Last year the national Department of Land Affairs gave him R354 927 for a land-reform project at the same farm. Thathana, a livestock farm, made it to question time in the National Assembly, where it was upheld as one of North West province's land-reform projects.

    Thathana was registered in May 2006 with Mogotlhe and five other family members as owners. He had started his job at the agriculture department two months earlier. According to his financial disclosure statement form, he holds 65% of the shares in the family business. Land Bank funds were also allegedly allocated to him to acquire the farm.

    In July this year Mogotlhe allegedly submitted his application for a R1,1-million provincial grant to the Ngakaa Modiri Molema offices of his department.
    full story from M&G here
    Shameless abuse of position for self-enrichment, by the looks of things.

    But wait - it's just got better.
    The final decisions on government tenders must be taken out of the hands of politicians, ANC president Jacob Zuma said on Friday.

    "We must remove adjudication of tenders from those that hold political office. We must separate it," he said.

    Responding to questions at a Cape Town Press Club breakfast he suggested a mechanism such as a tender board needed to be found to address this issue.

    "That will go a long way to delivering a telling blow against corruption, at least in government."

    Zuma said corruption was "all over" and causing anxiety in South Africa.
    from IOL here

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    gac (03-Aug-14)

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    Silver Member Graeme's Avatar
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    Zuma said corruption was "all over" and causing anxiety in South Africa.

    What was his role in the arms deals?

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    Site Caretaker Dave A's Avatar
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    I don't get how the politicians ever got to be in charge of awarding tenders without there being a big fuss about it in the first place. It used to be via tender board. And if the employee was caught doing mischief, dismissal, disgrace and worse. Now JZ is suggesting it goes back that way?

    My jaw was dropping about the spat around the catering contract for prisons. I was going "What the heck is a govenment minister doing meddling in this contract?" (Particularly when we're talking about going against the wishes of an official who was gaining a reputation for rooting out corruption).

    No wonder corruption spread through the system so fast - it's been coming from the top!

    Talk about generally corrupt relationships

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    gac (03-Aug-14)

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    Corruption perhaps biggest threat to road safety

    This is indeed a very important aspect to be addressed! Corruption is perhaps the biggest threat to road safety! As a road safety enthusiast I have been behind the Arrive Alive website for the past 5 years -having done so without government funding I need to add!. I have often been asked what the most important requirement is for greater safety - and believe that this is in fact "effective visible traffic enforcement"!

    This would however only be possible if there are no corruption / bribery. This takes place at so many levels:

    - getting a license
    - avoiding a fine for transgression of road rules
    - bribery not to have a unroadworthy vehicle discontinued
    - legal docs getting lost etc.

    I have added content on this to the Arrive Alive website at http://www.arrivealive.co.za/pages.aspx?i=2811

    I would like to invite members to share their thought and suggestions!

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    just me duncan drennan's Avatar
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    Welcome roadsafety! Nice to have you here with us

    I am interested to know what your thoughts are on the effectiveness of the Arrive Alive campaign - have all the ads, marketing and awareness campaigns made a difference, or have we only really seen improvement when policing and systems have been improved?
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    My pleasure! We need to understand what Arrive Alive is. Arrive Alive is merely the name given to the Road Safety Strategy as managed by the Department of Transport - and now the Road Traffic Management Corporation. This is however not unique to South Africa - and is a well known term in the US, UK, Australia, Nigeria, Jamaika and elsewhere.

    The positive is that more than 80% of people knows that it is the slogan for road safety. The negative is that "Arrive Alive" fails when those who do the enforcement etc fail - when we have corruption, bad enforcement, the wrong focus etc etc..

    There are many points that we can discuss - I have been doing my bit with on-line awareness since 2003 - and for the last year also the the blog at www.roadsafety.wordpress.com

    I believe we need to do what we can do - and do it to the best of our ability - it does not help to say that Arrive Alive does not work and throw our hands in the air in dispair - perhaps we can manage to change the attitude of a few drivers - and even if we do not save a life - prevent a few injuries!

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    Site Caretaker Dave A's Avatar
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    Corruption is endemic at the Department of Home Affairs, Deputy Director General Vusi Mkhize said on Tuesday.

    He was responding to a question posed at a parliamentary media briefing on how widespread corruption was in his department.

    "I think the issue of corruption ... and the department has not shied away from the problem, it is just generally an endemic problem.

    "[We] have ... a situation where, constantly, throughout the years, it has become an entrenched culture to solicit bribes [and] to solicit any other untoward mechanisms," he told journalists.

    The influence of criminal syndicates was a long-standing problem that the department was doing everything it could to root out.

    Society in general was suffering from moral decay and a "lack of concern about doing work honestly with integrity".

    Home affairs officials were part of this society too, he said.
    Full story from M&G here
    OK. So the problem is known and acknowledged. Any idea what is being done about it? Or is corruption simply to be accepted as the norm?

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    The only thing that can be done in my thinking is that they need accountability.

    We need quicker internal investigations, quick and effective labour courts and quicker outcomes. Suspension practices, should include suspension without pay and in the case of public servants, if found guilty after investigation, punishment should include a mandatory jail sentence of 1 year. Full Stop. This will stop the few who are corrupt simply because they can be and because they think it is the norm. Those with true criminal intent will not be stopped, but at least we will then have the resources to deal with them.
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    Diamond Member tec0's Avatar
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    Corruption is not a thing it is a condition. We need transparency when it comes to government and right now even the press can’t say anything anymore. So...

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    Site Caretaker Dave A's Avatar
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    My wife went in to get a copy of our marriage certificate this morning (original one stolen years ago). While you can get an abridged one almost immediately, she was told it would take about three months to have an unabridged one issued. This doesn't fit her timeframe (she's getting a visa to visit her sister in the UK next month) and she made the problem known.

    The answer: come back next week and try again.

    When she told me this, my immediate question was what will have changed next week

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