Corruption is, unfortunately, everywhere in South Africa – whether it’s paying to cut the line at the traffic department or, we don’t know, building a multimillion-rand homestead with a yet to be explained “fire pool”. But never did we expect this rampant corruption to reach the Office of The Chief Justice 👀. 

So, what happened?

Picture this:

  • Three senior employees at the OCJ – chief financial officer Casper Coetzer, chief director of court administration Nathi Mncube, and case management director Yvonne van Niekerk – help approve a contract to supply court software.
  • Thomson Reuters (yes, that Reuters), the company who wins the contract, is required by law to partner up with a local company. 
  • Enter ZA Square. ZA Square was created five days after the contract was awarded, and its three directors? Those aforementioned OCJ senior employees … who had JUST resigned.

But following the Sunday Times exposing the sordid arrangement a few weeks ago, the OCJ has moved swiftly to nip the deal in the bud. They have established an internal investigation of all their supply chain processes and Thomson Reuters has also launched an investigation of their own, while halting the IT deal with the OCJ following the allegations of impropriety.

A review of active contracts will also be done, particularly in the information communications technology (ICT) unit, the office said. It expects the process to be completed within the next three months.

It’s a win for accountability. 💪