SCAT’s Strengthening Action Against Corruption programme, also known as SAAC, does just that.
The SAAC project, a collaboration between SCAT, Corruption Watch, and Transparency International, is funded primarily by the European Union (80%), with the remainder from partner core funds. The project aims to improve public governance in South Africa by involving local organisations like Community Advice Offices (CAOs) and Community-Based Organisations (CBOs), alongside national and international Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and media.
The goal of this project is to foster a culture of good governance and transparency in the Eastern Cape, where poor governance and high corruption levels are prevalent. This will be achieved by empowering and supporting local CBOs and CAOs to spearhead anti-corruption efforts, and by actively engaging local government and the business sector.
The Eastern Cape has a dearth of unfinished public development projects, such as a stalled access road from the N2 and the Hendrik Kanise Combined School project in the Makana Municipality. There is an unfinished paving project in the Emalahleni Municipality. The community in that municipality has also brought non-functioning high-mast lights and the contamination of drinking water to the attention of the municipality through a petition.
SCAT grantee partners have used basic social auditing in their communities to identify a myriad of unfinished, abandoned infrastructure projects, such as RDP housing, water reticulation, roads, and sports fields.
The SAAC project aims to empower communities, through the CBO partners, to address local government failures and to bring about the outcomes that communities wish to see: proper roads, schools, and other infrastructure; the provision of clean water and other services to all households; a well-functioning municipality and the prohibition of wasteful expenditure.
To read more about combatting corruption and becoming an active citizen please read this report.
