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Corruption watchdog Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) is setting up shop in Cape Town.

The organisation relies on donations from small businesses and ordinary citizens to fight government graft, according to its executive Wayne Duvenage.

He spoke at public meeting in Milnerton last week.

“We have a lot of small donations compared to large donors,” said Mr Duvenage.

That made Outa less vulnerable to losing big investors who might “pull out” if Outa were to investigate something that made them “uncomfortable”, he said.

The non-profit was established in 2012 to fight Gauteng’s e-Toll system, but it later expanded to tackle corruption and maladministration in government.

To date, according to Mr Duvenage, Outa has tackled 112 projects, and he credits what he says is a 78% success rate to patience and thorough investigations, building “watertight” cases before going to the police.

“We search and investigate. We don’t shoot from the hip. It’s not about sensationalism; it’s about getting results,” he said.

There is an Outa office in Gauteng, and after setting up its Cape Town branch (posts are being advertised), the organisation plans to establish a presence in KwaZulu-Natal.

It cost R230 000 to run an Outa metro branch, said Outa member Julius Kleynhans.

Giving a breakdown of Outa’s budget, he claimed 85% of the money it generated was ploughed back into the community.

Donors could check online to see where their money went, and funds raised within each municipality were “ringfenced” to cover all costs for work in that area, said Mr Kleynhans.

Asked whether Outa would engage with local organisations, Mr Duvenage said working with civics was important.

A resident at the meeting said “bad administration in the Eastern Cape” was causing people to flee to Gauteng and the Western Cape.

“In consequence, you find that here in Cape Town the council is running to a standstill,” he said.

Mr Duvenage said he hoped to see more individual candidates running in the next elections as it “reduces political power to meddle”.

There was “too much political interference in local government,” he said.

For more information about Outa, email local@outa.co.za or call 087 170 0639.