Email to the President dated 25 March 2019, concerning the establishment of an Integrity Commission under Chapter Nine of the Constitution.
Dear Mr President, According to media reports, you have established an Investigative Directorate (the Unit) within the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to deal with grand corruption. We have publicly expressed our reservations about the constitutionality of this tactic in the war on the corrupt: www.accountabilitynow.org.za/?s=Poplak”s&submit=Se arch. www.accountabilitynow.org.za/can-shamila-batohi- revive-a-dying-npa/. www.accountabilitynow.org.za/why-cyrils-state- capture-squad-will-almost-certainly-fail/. Our main concern around the […]
Fit for office: Incompetence is curable, dishonesty is not
Opinionista • Paul Hoffman • 10 June 2019 • DailyMaverick Thuli Madonsela, the former Public Protector, has done the South African public a great service by breaking her silence to make it known that she did not run her office in the same way as her successor does. The confidentiality of processes and the opportunity […]
Is Bheki Cele fit for purpose?
Opinionista • Paul Hoffman • 5 June 2019 • DailyMaverick Those responsible for proper oversight of the police minister should be calling for his head, not mollycoddling him with technocratic advice. The new Cabinet is now in place, some fresh blood, some familiar faces and quite a pile of soiled baggage of the past. In […]
Government creates an atmosphere conducive to investment
By Paul Hoffman* On the same day that the Statistician-General announced that the SA economy has shrunk by 3.2% in the first quarter of this year, our worst performance in ten years, the Secretary General of the ANC, Ace Magashule, started his post NEC Lekgotla press conference on 3 June, 2019 with the sound observation […]
LETTER: Precautionary suspensions could improve ANC’s image
It would be the fairest way of dealing with errant MPs on the list compiled by the integrity committee 03 June 2019 – 05:00 – BusinessDay The infamous 23 people on the ANC’s parliamentary list who were red-flagged by the party’s integrity committee are all ANC deployees. It is therefore appropriate to regard them as […]
Comparing the new Scorpions with the old Scorpions
By Paul Hoffman 27th May 2019 It has been suggested in the media coverage of the establishment of an Investigative Directorate (ID) for state capture and serious corruption offences that the ID is the “New Scorpions”. Some useful lessons can be learned from a comparison of the Scorpions of old with the features of the […]
LETTER: Argument over ‘plot’ against Zuma is fallacious
Decision to prosecute was that of acting prosecutions boss Mokotedi Mpshe, not former chief Bulelani Ngcuka and Scorpions head Leonard McCarthy 22 May 2019 – 05:04 By Paul Hoffman in Business Day Mokotedi Mpshe, former acting director of public prosecutions. Picture: SOWETAN It is fallacious to argue that former national director of public prosecutions (NDPP) […]
Mayday! The NPA’s Hermione Cronje is navigating treacherous waters
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s appointment of advocate Hermione Cronje as head of the Investigative Directorate of the NPA, which will investigate grand corruption, does not pass constitutional muster. This is a proposition that will no doubt be tested by the slippery customers that the directorate has to investigate and prosecute, if it is not first tested […]
Rule of law gives Ramaphosa the power to right wrongs of the past
The president has an opportunity to staff his cabinet with honest and upstanding members as demanded by the constitution 16 May 2019 – 05:15 By Paul Hoffman (BusinessLive) One of the first tasks that faces the victorious alliance in the wake of the May 8 general elections is the swearing in of the members of […]
Ramaphosa’s tasks: More jobs, greater responsiveness, improved accountability, less impunity, no new corruption
It is fervently to be hoped that the political leadership of the country will see the need to have a squeaky-clean Cabinet in place and will urgently move to kick-start the legislative process required to give birth to the Integrity Commission that the IFP has asked the president to establish. Putting it in place is […]
