Counting corruption
Veza is an exciting new tool from Corruption Watch in South Africa: some years in the making, it’s an interactive map of police stations throughout the country, with per-station stats on resources, precinct size and reports of corruption.
Naturally you can upload your own reports too.
Right now, it’s more interesting as a tool for looking at police resources in detail – it comes as no surprise that Sandton has more officers than Diepsloot, despite having a smaller population, but it’s still food for thought when you see it written down.
We can but hope Corruption Watch’s tool takes off, and it’s nice that there’s a form to recognise officers for good work as well as bad although this kind of transparent reporting tool doesn’t have a great track record in SA. Media Monitoring Africa’s disinformation reporting tool is slowly building up a head of steam, but the City of Joburg’s once great Find&Fix civic problem spotter is abandonware. But there’s nothing like the slick and widely used 311 apps that proliferate in the US, for example. Maybe Corruption Watch can crack it.
Adam Oxford is a freelance journalist, media consultant and civic tech enthusiast. He also works closely with startups developing solutions to access to justice problems.