By Neelam Rahim

The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and the Special Investigation Unit combine forces to curb maladministration and corruption. The two organisations have agreed to collaborate in capacitating the country with fraud and corruption prevention tools. The Memorandum of Understanding was signed by the Head of the SIU Advocate Andy Mothibi and the CSIR CEO Dr Thulani Dlamini.

Joining the discussion with Radio Islam International is CSIR Cyber Security Research group manager, Dr Jabu Mtshweni.

According to Dr Jabu, the partnership between CSIR and SIU organisations is coming together to fight corruption.

He says this focus surrounds five pillars which include the issues of data sharing, data management, and data analytics, particularly corruption cases that the SIU is mandated to review.

The other angle focuses on building capacity issues, mainly the information in cyber security in forensics. It is also futuristic looking.

“We are trying now to see how we use technology as the government in fighting crime but not only from an investigation point of view but also from prevention before it happens,” says Dr Jabu.

When corruption is reported, it comes from people on the ground. Those people may be victimised, as we have seen. The partnership aims to implement technologies to safeguard whistle-blowers.

South Africa scales in the middle regarding the issues of corruption. Dr Jabu said cybercrime has been on the increase in South Africa. The cases during Covid-19 have shown that corruption occurs across different sectors, and people use technology to commit some of these acts.

Listen to the interview on Radio Islam’s podcast below.