Corruption Watch

In this third episode, Corruption Watch's executive director Karam Singh sits down with Robyn Pasensie from My Vote Counts and independent candidate Zackie Achmat in a lively discussion and analysis of South Africa's recent elections. The group talks about party funding and sources of campaign money, trends in terms of right and left politics, questionable appointments to parliamentary committees. what to expect in the fight against corruption going forward, and more.

In this episode, Corruption Watch executive director Karam Singh is in discussion with Nicki van ‘t Riet, the organisation’s head of Legal and Investigations, and Dan Mafora from the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution (CASAC). They discuss Dan’s new book that looks at a variety of issues relating to populism and the judiciary, which in turn informs a broader election discussion on the recent IEC vs MK Party judgment which found former president Jacob Zuma ineligible to stand for elections. They further discuss political parties’ election manifestos and expectations for the upcoming poll.

In this first episode, Corruption Watch executive director Karam Singh sits down with Robyn Pasensie from My Vote Counts, to talk us through the reasons this election stands out from those in the past. They discuss new regulations by which parties need to abide, including disclosure of party funding, and we hear how independents are now able to enter the race and what this means for the elections and South Africa's democracy.

As we have established in previous episodes of this moving and thought-provoking series about land corruption in South Africa, poor and marginalised communities have received a raw deal in their quest for inclusion and equality in the land equity dynamic since the dawn of democracy.

The stories of beneficiaries told throughout the series are testament to severe hardships, misery, and exclusion, and the absence of accountable leadership from those responsible for this neglect and abject failure to ensure equality and justice for farmworkers.

This episode explores how policies introduced along with the new democratic order could inadvertently be responsible for the continued suffering of labour tenants and other social groups trying to access and own land. This in spite of the constitutional safeguards put in place to mitigate the very hardships that are now experienced by the rural poor. Experts discuss the problems at hand, and some of the solutions that have been put in place.

In episode 4 of this important podcast series, the focus is on the living conditions of farmworkers, in particular the beneficiaries of farm worker equity schemes, and how they are consistently denied what is due to them as shareholders.

The team held numerous interviews with beneficiaries on various farms in the Western Cape, notably in the Matzikama and Witzenberg areas. Despite the Witzenberg municipality being one of the wealthiest farm areas and biggest deciduous producer in the country, the gap between the rich and poor in the region and the dire conditions of farm workers is put into stark relief.

We hear from farmworkers who speak about working on farms for their whole lives, and leaving with a fraction of what is due to them.

Different equity schemes and partnerships, managed by prominent commercial businesses, are discussed, revealing the sad reality that farm workers have been left feeling misled.

In episode 3 of the series, the CW team delves deeper into the intersection between corruption and human rights abuses in the land sector, exposing the ways in which this manifests and impacts disadvantaged and marginalised groups.

The team shares experiences from a field trip earlier this year, where they visited several farming communities in the Western Cape. Their meetings and engagements with beneficiaries and civil society stakeholders brought to light the challenges facing farm workers, the precariousness of their lives, and lack of security in terms of tenure and livelihoods. 

These discussions also highlighted the flaws in government schemes and programmes such as the equity scheme, the aim of which was to allow farm workers to share in ownership of the economy as a vehicle of transformation.

This episode explores the contentious issue of land in South Africa, and its importance as a critical resource and foundation for sustainable livelihoods, by explaining how the country’s land system works in practice. It canvasses the views of a wide range of stakeholders, from grassroots civil society organisations and activists to individuals on the left and right of the political spectrum.

It contrasts the opinions of those on the left who believe land should be returned to the black majority because of the country’s colonial past, to those on the right who believe that inequality and poverty can be addressed through employment and access to property rights.

The focus also extends to the fragmented legal framework and the role of traditional leadership that makes it difficult for people to obtain security of tenure, while also reviewing the intersection of gender, race, land rights, and corruption.

This episode addresses the broad topic of land in South Africa, its history and legacy under apartheid leading up to the current day, and the work of Corruption Watch in relation to land and corruption. 

Listeners will hear a summary of the learnings from the first phase of the Land and Corruption in Africa (LCA) project, also referencing the December 2019 report Unearthing Corruption in the Land Sector and providing context to the focus of phase two of that project, which was launched in 2022. 

The episode touches on land issues affecting vulnerable groups broadly, and the contributing factors. This context is outlined by civil society actors, a small-scale farmer, and parliament researcher.

This episode addresses the broad topic of land in South Africa, its history and legacy under apartheid leading up to the current day, and the work of Corruption Watch in relation to land and corruption. 

Listeners will hear a summary of the learnings from the first phase of the Land and Corruption in Africa (LCA) project, also referencing the December 2019 report Unearthing Corruption in the Land Sector and providing context to the focus of phase two of that project, which was launched in 2022. 

The producer sets the scene in this and all subsequent episodes with a conversation between himself and his grandmother on a road trip in which his grandmother recounts her years as a farm-dweller and worker in 1940s and 1950s South Africa.  

The episode includes clips from Transparency International LCA project lead Alice Stevens, Thapelo Mohapi, secretary-general of grassroots movement Abahlali baseMjondolo, founder of South African Women in Farming Mam Deborah Motuku, CEO of Blind SA Jace Nair, and parliamentary researcher Mashudu Masutha.

These interviewees describe the severe challenges of access to land experienced by a vast number of people in South Africa, and the dire consequences of corruption, which further denies people their rights to decent land.

Corruption impacts access to land in South Africa and the powerful perpetuate it in this sector. Join Corruption Watch in exploring this critical topic in its podcast series: Land and Corruption: Story of the marginalised.