Act (PDA), Public Service Anti-Corruption Strategy, and Local Government Anti-Corruption Strategy. The state’s capacity to combat corruption has also been strengthened by the constitutional court’s decision that the independence of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (also known as the Hawks) established in 2009 to prevent, combat and investigate national priority offences including serious corruption, was not sufficiently protected. The court ordered the South African Parliament to remedy the situation in September 2012 to ensure that the Directorate has the necessary structural and operational independence to fulfil its mandate without undue interference. This is in line with South Africa’s constitution as well as international agreements that South Africa has signed which require the creation of independent anti-corruption entities. In addition to strengthening state’s capacity to combat corruption through the Directorate referred to above, the President announced the launching of the Public Sector AntiCorruption Unit (PSACU) located in the Department of Public Service and Administration, whose main focus would be to monitor the investigation of corruption cases reported to them by other government departments and ensure that disciplinary measures are effectively taken against those found guilty and that the state recovers money lost as a result of corruption-related misconduct. Further to the monitoring and co-ordinating capacity that PSACU provides, government departments are expected to have minimum anti-corruption capacity to enable them to trace and identify corruption as well as deal with it in the shortest possible time. Capacity is, however, uneven among the departments at both the national and provincial levels, a challenge that affects the effective combating of corruption in the country. The National Anti-Corruption Hotline (NACH), established in 2004 continues to be one of the main mechanisms through which the South African public reports allegations of corruption in the public sector. It is managed by the PSC which investigates selected allegations even though it focuses mainly on capturing data and referring complaints to government departments and other investigating agencies while monitoring feedback and reporting on the effectiveness of the hotline. The NACH has proved effective as a reporting mechanism and would probably be even more effective due to its more active promotion by the PSC, the Ministry of Public Service and Administration and, to a limited extent, other state institutions. The PSC manages the Hotline on behalf of the state. It periodically analyses the number of cases received since its inception. The Commission states that for the period 2004/05 to 2010/11 the NACH received 106799 calls of which 7922 were of alleged corruption19. There has, however, been an increase in the establishment of hotlines in government departments and agencies, thus making it difficult to have a global view of the magnitude of the reality or perception of corruption. Some government departments have also not been effective in investigating allegations referred to them and providing feedback to the Public Service Commission and this subtracts from the public trust in the hotline. In May 2011, South Africa issued an instruction to all institutions requiring pre-planning of procurement above R 500 000 to enable monitoring national and provincial treasuries, the 19 The Public Service Commission Third Biennial Report 47