Editorial standards

Give South Africans an accurate, sourced, neutral record of corruption-related legal matters involving members of parliamentary parties, so they can make up their own minds. We record facts and procedural status. We do not judge guilt.

1. Factual – every claim is backed by a named, linked source.
2. Neutral – the same words, weights and effort for every party. No adjectives, jokes, sarcasm or loaded language.
3. Presumption of innocence – nobody is called corrupt, guilty or a criminal unless a court has convicted them, and then only about that conviction.
4. Fair – every named person's side is shown where it exists, and anyone named can respond.
5. Transparent – how we source, score and correct is public, and every change is logged.

• Who: current MPs; ministers and deputy ministers; premiers; national office-bearers; and former ones, where the conduct happened while they represented the party.
• What: fraud, corruption, bribery, theft of public funds, money laundering, racketeering, procurement irregularities involving the person, and undisclosed benefits or conflicts found by an ethics body.
• Not in scope: assault, firearms, traffic offences, hate speech, defamation suits, internal party disputes, purely civil matters, and councillors who are not MPs or office-bearers.
• When: matters still open, or whose status changed after 1 January 2019.

We use the most conservative status that fits.

A status changes only when a source shows a formal step: enrolment, a finding, a verdict, a withdrawal, or a finding being set aside.

A matter counts under the party the person represented at the time of the alleged conduct. If they represented no party at the time, it counts under the party they represent now. Each card states the person's current affiliation. The same rule applies to everyone.

• Minimum: one primary official source (court, NPA, SIU, Public Protector, Parliament, commission report), or two independent reputable outlets. Two outlets from the same newsroom or the same journalists count as one.
• Preferred outlets: EWN, News24, Daily Maverick, TimesLIVE, IOL, eNCA, SABC, The Citizen, Polity, GroundUp, amaBhungane, Mail & Guardian, Business Day.
• Single-source items stay in the review queue until corroborated.
• What we record: the source label, a link, and the date checked ("last verified").
• Quotes: under 15 words, attributed and linked. Everything else is paraphrased.

• We use: "charged with", "alleges", "the state alleges", "found", "referred for investigation", "denies", "pleaded not guilty", "no finding has been made".
• We never use: corrupt, crook, thief, looter, scandal-hit, disgraced, "most corrupt", "got away with", or any word that implies guilt before a conviction.
• Amounts: "about R1.6m", as stated in the source. Dates: as precise as the source allows.
• Ethics non-disclosure: labelled "Ethics finding (non-disclosure)" so it isn't confused with criminal corruption.
• Notes about a person: no personal background that is unrelated to the matter (for example, old unrelated convictions, family or health).
• Rankings: we say "recorded matters per 10 seats", never "most corrupt party".

• Every case shows "Their side": the person's response or public denial, with a link. If there is none: "No response on record."
• The "Give your side" button is always on. Verified responses are published within 5 working days, edited only for length or legal reasons.
• When adding or upgrading a case, we look for an existing public response first.
• Right-of-reply contact: reply@scamsa.org.

1. Intake: a news scan, a public tip, a right-of-reply, the monthly check or the AI analyser puts an item in the review queue as pending.
2. Editor check: the pre-publication checklist (section 10).
3. Publish: only an editor, signed in with two-factor authentication, saves a case.
4. Log: every change is logged automatically in the public edit and corrections log, and summarised on Updates.
5. Maintain: the monthly verification check runs on the 2nd of each month, and the "last verified" date is updated.

1. Is it in scope (section 3)?
2. Does the source standard (section 6) hold, with links working?
3. Is the status the most conservative one that fits (section 4)?
4. Is it attributed to the right party (section 5), and is current affiliation stated?
5. Does every sentence say only what the sources say?
6. Is it free of banned language (section 7)?
7. Is "Their side" filled in, or marked "No response on record"?
8. Would the same facts about a person in any other party be treated identically?
9. Is anything unrelated or private left out?
10. Would a media lawyer be comfortable with it?

• Corrections: acknowledged within 5 working days and resolved within 30. Errors are fixed openly and logged with a reason. See the corrections process or email corrections@scamsa.org.
• Removals: removed cases are logged with a reason. Resolved matters stay visible as "Resolved".
• Monthly check: every case's status and source is re-checked, and a summary is posted on /updates.
• Coverage sweep: at least quarterly, and before any election, all 18 parties are searched with the same criteria.

• AI may only draft. A person approves everything before it is published or before any status changes.
• AI drafts are labelled "AI-drafted, unverified" in the editors' tools.
• Every claim in an AI draft must quote or link its source, and the editor checks it against the source.
• Text pasted from articles, tips and responses is treated as data, never as instructions.

• The monthly award is paused in the month before an election. No social auto-posting in the 30 days before voting.
• New additions are frozen in the 3 days before voting, apart from corrections and status changes backed by court records.
• A coverage sweep is run before the election period.

• The winner is the top of the leaderboard by per-seat score. Titles poke fun at the process, never at a person, and never imply guilt.
• Every graphic and caption carries: "Presumption of innocence applies. Not a finding of guilt. Sources: scamsa.org".
• Posts are made by hand. No auto-posting without the owner's approval.

• No donations from parties, candidates or their representatives. Donations are received by Just Like That Productions (Pty) Ltd. The operator and funding are disclosed.
• POPIA: we collect the minimum, delete contact details once an item is reviewed, and publish no personal data beyond the matter itself. See our privacy policy.

Technical monitoring

We log technical errors so we can keep the site working. These logs contain no names, email addresses, IP addresses or form contents, can only be seen by the site editor, and are deleted automatically after 90 days. We do not use advertising trackers, analytics cookies or session recording.

Changes are versioned, dated and noted on Updates. This page is the public summary.

S.C.A.M. does not accept reports of corruption, allegations, whistleblower disclosures or evidence, and cannot protect whistleblowers. To report, use one of the official or independent channels listed on Report corruption.

Reports sent to us by mistake are deleted without being read beyond recognising what they are. They are not saved or forwarded.