IPOC Blog
The IPOC weblog is a resource of news items related to anti-corruption issues in Africa. Information is published with due consideration to the 'fair use' doctrine in terms of copyrighted material. Weekly archives of news items can be viewed by scrolling to the bottom of this page.
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2005-03-11
ReutersMadagascar's government has taken impressive steps to reform its public finances and tackle corruption, vital for luring foreign investment, a senior World Bank official said on Thursday.
President Marc Ravalomanana, who took power in 2002 after a sporadically violent power struggle with his predecessor, has pledged to fight poverty by tackling graft and making wide-ranging free-market reforms.
BBC NewsThe report of the Africa Commission is expected to call for rich countries, and particularly their financial services industry, to do more to fight corruption.
Mail & Guardian OnlineSouth Africans feel less likely to see corruption in government today than they were during the 1990s, says the Afrobarometer survey released on Thursday by the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (Idasa).
New StatesmanAfrica special: corruption - If the ill-gotten gains of the corrupt elite went into, say, mobile-phone companies at home, it wouldn't be so bad. But the funds always go overseas.
Dispatch OnlineSchabir Shaik's advocate Francois van Zyl produced a new document in the high court here yesterday which indicates that Deputy President Jacob Zuma had indeed informed Parliament about his liabilities to Shaik.
Reuters AlertNetThe UK-sponsored Africa Commission issued a bulky and ambitious report on Friday intended as a global blueprint for recovery on the continent.
Following are some key quotes and recommendations.
2005-03-10
Mail & GuardianBritish Prime Minister Tony Blair's commission on Africa has come up with a road map to recovery for the continent, but countries must now cooperate and focus on priorities if the project is to succeed, the only American member of the task force said.
Business DayAttempts by the Democratic Alliance (DA) to launch a parliamentary investigation into auditor-general Shauket Fakie�s altering of draft reports of a special investigation into the arms deal have fallen into a black hole.
Business DayA report by public broadcaster Swedish Radio this week - alleging that suppliers in SA's controversial arms-procurement programme had exaggerated offset investments to sell aircraft to SA - has elevated concerns that suppliers are not living up to their promises.
2005-03-09
The StarImpermanency in high office is a fundamental democratic principle. But in most of Africa, permanency of tenure and the reluctance by most presidents to voluntarily hand over power - even after losing elections - is a striking feature.
African politics remains an often violent, typically extra-legal contest for political and economic domination between elites of politicians.
Journalism.co.zaSenior Kenyan ministers have threatened to take legal action against civil servants who allegedly leaked confidential information on official corruption to diplomats and the media...
Business DayWhat is Deputy President Jacob Zuma worth? This is not a question about the size of his bank balance or the extent of his financial interests. It is, rather, a question about the political value of the deputy president of SA and the ruling African National Congress (ANC).
Is he worth the R500000-a-year bribe his financial adviser, Schabir Shaik, is alleged to have solicited from French arms manufacturer Thomson-CSF, in return for political protection from Zuma in the arms deal inquiry?
ABC Radio TranscriptThe British Government's Africa Commission report, which is due out this week, was supposed to drive the international arguments on how to address poverty on the continent, with the British Prime Minister Tony Blair taking up the challenge to lead the G8 countries in a massive injection of foreign aid to Africa...
...The leaked draft does say that corruption has been the key impediment to development in Africa, and vows to crack down on Western companies who offer bribes, as well as those who take the money.
allAfrica.comOf course, our experience has shown clearly that dictatorial rule has more negative consequences for development than the worst form of democratic governance. All shades of dictatorial rule ultimately confirm the timeless thesis that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Dictatorships, both of the agbada and khaki varieties worsened the problem of poverty and underdevelopment in Africa through mind boggling corruption which eroded the moral fabric of society and the denigration of human rights to the detriment of individual initiative, creativity and dignity.
allAfrica.comUp to Sh73 billion allegedly transferred abroad by influential officials in former President Moi's government "is sitting in London bank vaults", a leading UK newspaper said yesterday...
...The issue of corruption in Kenya and from other African countries is likely to feature heavily in UK Prime Minister Tony Blair's Commission for Africa report, due to be published this Friday.
allAfrica.com...Put simply, foreign aid is a subsidy for government incompetence and corruption. I challenged Blair using this argument, and he responded that the Commission will emphasise 'good governance': better tax administration and prudent public expenditure. He could not see that good governance is more a product of enlightened self-interest than moral commitment.
BBC NewsBeating corruption
Unlike many African nations, Botswana has successfully kept corruption in check. According to the corruption watchdog, Transparency International, Botswana is the least corrupt country in Africa.
2005-03-08
News24.comAny effort to stop Jacob Zuma from becoming president would be like "trying to fight against the big wave of the tsunami", Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said on Monday...
...Reservations have been raised about Zuma becoming the next president due to his allegedly corrupt relationship with his financial adviser Schabir Shaik.
IOLSouth Africa's multi-billion rand arms acquisition was discussed in the Durban High Court on Monday as fraud and corruption accused Schabir Shaik was cross-examined. The State alleges Shaik attempted to solicit a R500 000 per year bribe for his close friend Deputy President Jacob Zuma from a French arms maker, Thomson CSF. This was in exchange for Zuma's protection during a subsequent investigation into alleged irregularities in the arms deal.
2005-03-07
ABCIn Sierra Leone the United Nations is winding down and preparing to pull out, five years after the end of a brutal civil war. Sierra Leone once had the largest UN force in the world, but the West African nation is now at peace. But there's rising anger in the country, as the same issues which helped sparked the conflict resurface - poverty, unemployment and corruption.
allAfrica.comThe Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is hosting with partners a conference on ways of promoting investment in Africa. Organised by the OECD in co-operation with the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), the UN Global Compact and Transparency International, the conference will focus on ways in which African governments and investors can conduct business in an environment free of bribery, extortion and other forms of corruption.
AFPConstance Newman, the top US State Department official to visit Malawi in more 15 years, hailed Blantyre's efforts at fighting endemic corruption and announced a 200,000-dollar grant to beef up the anti-graft campaign.
Times Online - Sunday TimesSouth Africa's judiciary has been divided by an acrimonious race row after one of its most senior judges accused a white colleague of claiming that blacks had 'corruption in their genes'.
Jamaica Observer...The old, dead horses are ritually and comprehensively flogged - corruption and ineptitude are rightly condemned, but nowhere is it acknowledged that the developed world might have had any part in encouraging, financing and promoting this corruption and ineptitude. There is no mention, for instance, of the part played by the United States, Britain and Belgium in the murderous destabilisation of the Congo.
TIME Europe Magazine - Mar. 14, 2005Though outside aid and assistance are vital, Africa must find its own path from poverty to prosperity.
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