South
Africa
cannot
audit
its
way
out
of
bad
governance;
it
must
be
led
ethically
out
of
it.
The
current
government
oversight
system
acts
as a
"lag
measure",
like
a
final
school
report,
which
only
confirms
failure
after
the
damage
is
done.
Corrupt
officials
merely
"hide
stuff"
until
the
auditors
leave.
This was
the
message
delivered
by Lonwabo
Patrick
Kulati,
Good
Governance
Africa’s
CEO
(SARO),
to the
Southern
African
Institute
of
Government
Auditors
(SAIGA)
conference
last
week.
“The
damage
is
happening
long
before
the
audit,”
he
warned.
“By the
time
oversight
catches
up, the
state
has
already
lost
money,
capacity,
and
trust.”
Meaningful
reform
depends
on
ethical
authority
at the
highest
levels,
he said,
and
leaders
must
show
moral
courage,
enforce
consequences
in real
time,
and
model
the
values
they
expect
from
public
servants.
Kulati
urged
South
Africa
to shift
toward
“lead
measure
management”,
an
approach
that
prioritises
early
warning
systems,
continuous
monitoring,
and
immediate
consequence
management
–
interventions
designed
to
prevent
collapse
rather
than
document
it after
the
fact.
Ethical
governance
–
particularly
of
investment
funds
–
was
also
a
central
theme
at
G20-aligned
Amplifying
the
Africa
Voices
for
Strategic
Action
(AFSA)
2025
Conference
last
month,
where
Kulati
served
as
the
programme
director.
African
Sovereign
Wealth
Funds
(SWFs),
state-owned
investment
funds
set
up
by
African
governments
to
manage
national
wealth,
are
uniquely
positioned
to
inject
non-debt-creating,
long-term
capital
into
critical
sectors,
Kulati
said,
but
warned
that
this
capital
must
be
secured
by
structures
that
guarantee
operational
autonomy
and
strong
oversight.
The
Santiago
Principles,
international
‘good
housekeeping
rules’
for
SWFs
meant
to
keep
them
transparent
and
focused
on
long-term
national
benefit,
would
serve
as
an
ideal
guideline,
he
suggested.
Within
South
Africa’s
own
ruling
grand
coalition,
all
is
not
well
within
the
Ministry
of
Environment,
in
which
the
Democratic
Alliance
asked
the
President
to
remove
one
of
its
own
ministers
in
a
bizarre
act
of
intrigue
right
in
the
middle
of
the
Climate
Conference
of
the
Parties
in
Brazil.
Read
Dr
Ross
Harvey’s
take
on
the
matter
here.
At
city
level,
robust
institutional
oversight
is
critical,
and
in
this
respect,
Cape
Town,
South
Africa,
leads
other
African
cities
by
example.
GGA’s
latest
African
Cities
Profiling
report,
one
of
a
series
of
10
reports
profiling
cities
in
the
SADC
region,
does
a
deep
data
dive
into
Cape
Town
and
finds
that
97.7%
of
households
have
access
to
improved
water
supply
and
the
same
proportion
to
adequate
sanitation.
The
data
also
highlights
challenges;
nearly
12%
of
households
still
live
in
informal
housing,
and
real
GDP
per
capita
has
declined
over
the
past
decade
despite
overall
economic
growth.
As
GGA
researcher
Nnaemeka
Ohamadike
writes
in
his
Business
Day
article
this
week,
open
data
matters
because
cities
are
where
governance
touches
daily
life.
“Our
aim
with
the
African
Cities
project
is
to
make
openness
routine,
comparable,
and
useful
through
a
reliable
databank
at
the
sub-national
level
that
drives
better
decisions,”
he
writes.
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For
the
full
Cape
Town
city
profile
report
please
click
here, and
here
for
the
Dar
Es
Salaam
report
released
last
week.
The
Future
of African
Cities
edition
of
Africa
in
Fact,
published
earlier
this
year,
also
provides
excellent
insights
into
the
continent's
capitals.
Continent-wide
data
also
shows
that
tourism
has
almost
fully
recovered
from
the
Covid
pandemic
shock,
and
is
still
climbing.
But
again,
responsible
investment
and
governance
are
key.
In
her
latest
article,
Helen
Grange
unpacks
the
meaning
of
sustainable
tourism
beyond
simple
‘greenwashing’,
where
tourism
products
consciously
serve
both
their
communities
and
the
environment.
In
West
Africa,
meanwhile,
last
month’s
coup
in
Guinea-Bissau
has
prompted
the
Economic
Community
of
West
African
States
(ECOWAS) to
suspend the
country’s
membership,
a
move
that
may
inadvertently
strengthen
the
junta’s
ties
with
trans-Atlantic
drug
networks,
writes
GGA-Nigeria
researchers
Adejumo
Kabir
Adeniyi
and
Dr
Ola
Bello.
And
in
Nigeria,
the
rapid
appointment
of
retired
General
Christopher
Musa
as
Nigeria’s
new
defence
minister
signals
an
attempt
to
restore
credibility
and
strategic
clarity
to
the
country’s
faltering
security
architecture.
In
this
article,
GGA-Nigeria
researcher
Malik
Samuel
looks
at
what
this
means
for
the
country’s
defence
policy
and
future.
On
a
celebratory
note,
GGA
was
honoured
to
be
invited
to
the
Embassy
of
Finland
for
its
National
Day
celebration
last
week.
Hosted
by
Ambassador
H.E.
Mr
Pekka
Metso
at
his
official
residence,
the
event
centred
on
shared
values
and
prospects
for
strengthened
bilateral
cooperation
with
South
Africa.
As
we
wind
down
to
the
holidays,
GGA
takes
this
opportunity
to
thank
you
for
your
ongoing
interest
in
what
has
been
a
very
productive
year
for
us,
and
we
hope
to
see
you
again
in
the
new
year.
Have
a
blessed
festive
month.
Dr
Ross
Harvey
Chief
Research
Officer
|
|
|
By
Nnaemeka
Ohamadike
“In
God we
trust;
all
others
must
bring
data,”
said
American
statistician
and
management
theorist
W.
Edwards
Deming –
a
reminder
that
accountability
begins
with
evidence.
Every
month,
my
colleagues...
|
|
By
Malik
Samuel
Less
than a
week
after
President
Bola
Tinubu
declared
a
‘nationwide
security
emergency’,
the
defence
minister,
Mohammed
Badaru
Abubakar,
resigned,
citing
health
issues.
On the
same
day, the
president
met...
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|
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|
|
By
Helen
Grange
For
many
travellers,
the
definition
of a
sustainable
tourism
establishment
is
confined
to its
carbon
footprint,
i.e.,
whether
it
follows
‘green’
principles
like
not
littering,
reducing
plastic
use, or
conserving
water
and
energy....
|
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