CHAPTER 9

Countering Corruption

Hear from two former Constitutional judges:

Richard Goldstone

Kate O’Regan

Establish an  Integrity Commission to end corruption

The corrupt are thieves, they steal from the poor by diverting public funds meant for service delivery, poverty alleviation and the promotion of a better life for all. The looted money is sent overseas and hidden in bank accounts and investments that are difficult to track and trace. The wide-scale looting that has taken place in South Africa is estimated to be as much as R1.5 trillion. A trillion has 12 zeroes to the left of the decimal point. (R1,500 000 000 000)

With our high unemployment rate, there are millions of  desperately poor and hungry people in our country  – they have each lost a significant portion of this money intended to uplift them and improve their lives.

In order to stop the looting of our coffers, the current culture of corruption with no consequences must end. The best way to stop corruption in South Africa is for the government to create a constitutionally compliant  entity that is able to prevent, combat, investigate and prosecute corruption, while raking back the loot already stolen.

Only a specialised and well-trained Chapter 9 Integrity Commission, that is independent, well-resourced and secure in its tenure of office, will have the power to bring the corrupt to justice.

Corruption is one of the great scourges of our age. As this book makes clear, it is estimated that trillions of dollars are paid in bribes every year and that developing regions lose ten times more to corruption than they receive in foreign aid, with illicit outflows of the funds that they desperately need totalling more than 1 trillion US dollars per year. The reason for this is not a lack of laws prohibiting corruption in its various forms (there is no shortage of them) but the impunity enjoyed by those guilty of contravening them, resulting from their control of the institutions which are supposed to see to it that the law is enforced.

 

click to download the book

Integrity Commission Bill, 2021 – proposed by Accountability Now.

To be read with:  Constitution Eighteenth Amendment Bill, 2021 – proposed by Accountability Now

And: Memorandum on a constitutional amendment and enabling legislation for anti-corruption machinery of state in SA.

YOUTH AGAINST CORRUPTION

In Collaboration with ACTIVATE

Share your voice:

With your support, we can fast-track the establishment of a dedicated anti-corruption Integrity Commission. The letter below can be emailed to both the President and the Secretary of the Constitutional Reform Committee of the National Assembly as a way of expressing your support for the establishment of a dedicated, independent and effective anti-corruption Integrity Commission. Fighting corruption demands active citizenship over passive acceptance. Send your email and make your voice heard.

Email Addresses to send the letter to:

presidentRSA@presidency.gov.za & vramaano@parliament.gov.za

Want to do more? Share our campaign on social media and encourage your community to stand with us as we fight corruption in South Africa. Share and follow our #CrushCorruptionSA campaign for further updates.

Relevant Articles

The cure to the malaise of which General Mkhwanazi complains

Paul Hoffman | 10 July 2025 Paul Hoffman says our system for preventing, detecting, investigating and prosecuting the corrupt is not working optimally The commissioner of police in KZN has raised his head above the parapet to voice his concerns around the trajectory...

read more

LETTER: Invoking the rule of law decade late

Accelerate the bills pending in parliament for the establishment and enablement of a new Chapter 9 anticorruption commission 09 July 2025 - 15:44 President Cyril Ramaphosa gestures during the Brics Summit 2025 at Museu de Arte Moderna on July 6 2025 in Rio de Janeiro,...

read more

LETTER: Mashatile’s risk of conflict

Deputy president’s sister-in-law is linked to national lottery tender 02 July 2025 - 14:54 Amid concern about the involvement of the twin sister of Paul Mashatile’s wife in the largesse available to the winning bidder of the competition to run the national lottery, it...

read more

The Hawks Keepers have Poisoned our land.

Jacques Pauw, author of two anti-corruption treatises “The President’s Keepers” and “Our Poisoned Land”, has made a fact-filled and sterling contribution to the debate on the future of the criminal justice system in SA in his News24 weekend essay “ Long claw of the...

read more

LETTER: Validity of the IMF loan

An authorising special resolution by the National Assembly is needed Your report on the large R27bn IMF loan apparently secured by the government refers (“David Masondo defends R27bn World Bank loan”, June 24). According to the report, the EFF has objected to the loan...

read more

LETTER: NPA is patently not independent

Now the justice department is keeping the record of the Zondo state capture commission away from the NPA 10 June 2025 - 13:23 During the course of a wide-ranging 27 minute interview with Newsroom Afrika, national director of public prosecutions Shamila Batohi insisted...

read more

Adv Paul Hoffman weighs on the NPA track record

Staying on that story, Democratic Alliance (DA) Member of Parliament on the Committee for Justice and Constitutional Development, Damien Klooper, says the National Prosecuting Authority is failing at the most basic level, with the Timothy Omotoso case being the latest...

read more

Suggested memo from POTUS to PROSA

By Paul Hoffman The brambles of fact-checking, the recriminations from the commentariat, the revealed misconceptions in Washington and the need for a reset of relations between South Africa and the US all suggest that constructive communication is now vital. What if...

read more

LETTER: GNU must roll up sleeves

No legislation for jobs nor any effective policy changes have emerged The whole world watched the smackdown televised infotainment in the Oval Office last Wednesday and now knows for sure that: SA is a dangerous place for its whole population, not only white farmers....

read more

MK and EFF get lost in translation on Paul Pretorius SC

Paul Hoffman on political interference masquerading as concern for the rule of law Last year Paul Pretorius SC and Matthew Chaskalson SC, both Zondo Commission evidence leaders, accepted temporary assignments with the NPA to help boost its skills and capacity in...

read more

LETTER: EFF attack on NPA is misplaced

Nobody better placed than Zondo commission’s evidence leader to aid the National Prosecuting Authority The EFF has issued a media statement containing a scurrilous attack on the efforts of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to beef up its anticorruption capacity...

read more

GOOD ON PAPER, not so much in practice

By Paul Hoffman In many countries around the world there is no shortage of laws against corruption. The challenge is to create a governance framework that is itself corruption-resilient, so the laws can be enforced efficiently and effectively by personnel of...

read more

Seven deadliest FAQs on countering corruption in SA

Paul Hoffman says it is politically suicidal to be seen to be opposing the adoption of anti-corruption laws 1. Why is so much fuss made about corruption in SA? The Constitutional Court has provided the best short answer to this question given the context of what the...

read more

Justice is like air and clean water

By Paul Hoffman The full quote from which the headline above is taken reads: “Justice is not a luxury, it is something we need like air and clean water”. The author of the quote is Vera Jourova, a Czech lawyer and politician, who until 2024 was the European Commission...

read more

Are we living in a BANI country?

Paul Hoffman Janet Jobson is a “merchant of hope”. She has to be because she heads up the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation. She has brought the concept of “BANI” into the national discourse, and not a moment too soon either. Google reveals the meaning of the...

read more

LETTER: GNU reset must be constitutional

Civil society will litigate to invalidate any change that violates the founding document The talk of a “reset” for the 10-party coalition that has governed in SA since the election in May 2024 has to be seen within the context of the constitution, which prescribes...

read more

LETTER: Cabinet must act collectively

07 April 2025 - 17:29 In all the wholly unnecessary fuss around the spat over a 0.5 percentage point hike in VAT, politicians have lost sight of the constitutional responsibilities of the cabinet. All in cabinet are “accountable collectively and individually to...

read more

How to resolve the GNU Budget dispute over raising VAT

By Paul Hoffman There is currently some R89bn swilling around in the financial services sector that is unclaimed. It emerged during the interview that there is currently a pool, or more accurately pools, aggregating some R89-billion swilling around in the financial...

read more
Share it to your own platforms