Jean-Jacques Cornish

Auditors being threatened and attacked in South African municipalities

Auditors checking the books of local government municipalities across South Africa are being attacked.

In the latest incident a young woman auditor was shot in the legs by assailants who broke into her hotel room and stole her laptop computer containing crucial information about her investigation.

Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Zweli Mkhize has strongly condemned the attack and acts of intimidation against government auditors.

In Vanderbijlpark south of Johannesburg assailants broke into the hotel where  a member of the Auditor General’s front line staff was being accommodated while she performed her investigation.

They shot her in both legs and left unscathed

a colleague who was sharing the room.

The attack follows threats in recent weeks against  Auditor General’s staff in the east coast port city of Durban and in Pietermaritzburg,  the capital of KwaZulu/Natal.

The victims were all deployed  to undertake audits of financial statements and performance information.

Mkhize says municipalities are at the centre of the economic revival  being championed by President Cyril Ramaphosa.

They have to show prudence in how they spend public finances and the Auditor General’s office is busy checking on this.

The minister calls on law enforcement agencies to follow up on the attacks and threats and ensure the perpetrators are brought to book.

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Jean-Jacques Cornish is a journalist and broadcaster who has been involved in the media all his adult life.

Starting as a reporter on his hometown newspaper, he moved briefly to then Rhodesia before returning to South Africa to become a parliamentary correspondent with the South African Press Association. He was sent to London as Sapa’s London editor and also served as special correspondent to the United Nations. He joined the then Argus group in London as political correspondent.

Returning to South Africa after 12 years abroad, he was assistant editor on the Pretoria News for a decade before becoming editor of the Star and SA Times for five years.

Since 1999 he’s been an independent journalist writing and broadcasting – mainly about Africa – for Talk Radio 702 and 567 Cape
Talk, Radio France International, PressTV, Radio Live New Zealand, Business Day, Mail & Guardian, the BBC, Agence France Press,
Business in Africa, Leadership, India Today, the South African Institute for International Affairs and the Institute for Security Studies.

He has hosted current affairs talk shows on Talk Radio 702 and 567 Cape Talk. He appears as an African affairs pundit on SABC Africa and CNBC Africa.
He lectured in contemporary studies to journalism students at the Tshwane University of Technology and the University of Pretoria.

He speaks on African affairs to corporate and other audiences.
He has been officially invited as a journalist to more than 30 countries. He was the winner of the 2007 SADC award for radio journalism.

He’s been a member of the EISA team observing elections in Somaliland, Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar, Zimbabwe, Egypt and Tunsiai.

In October 2009 he headed a group of 39 African journalists to the 60th anniversary celebrations of the Peoples’ Republic of China.

In January 2010 he joined a rescue and paramedical team to earthquake struck Haiti.

He is immediate past president of the Alliance Francaise of Pretoria.

Jean-Jacques is a director of Giant Media. The company was given access to Nelson Mandela in his retirement years until 2009.
He is co-producer of the hour-long documentary Mandela at 90 that was broadcast on BBC in January 2009.