Johnathan Paoli
Global corruption watchdog Transparency International (TI) has released its report for last year and found that SA has slipped two points and scored the lowest rating since it became a part of the survey in 2011.
The organisations released its annual index on Tuesday morning, which measured perceptions of public sector corruption in 180 countries and confirmed that SA has slid down by two points to below the global average.
The institution reported that this year’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) showed mixed results in Africa, with significant improvements in a few countries, however, most African countries experienced stagnation, maintaining the region’s consistently poor performance, with an unaltered regional average score of 33 out of 100.
Seychelles with a CPI score of 71 remained the top scorer in the region, followed by Cabo Verde (64) and Botswana (59), with Equatorial Guinea (17), South Sudan (13) and Somalia (11) performing the lowest with no sign of improvement.
The organisation confirmed that 90% of countries in Sub-Saharan Africa scored under 50, with SA scoring 41 out of 100.
TI said that despite the significant milestone and the hope that corruption would end with the establishment of a more accountable governmental system, the country’s CPI score has declined over the past five years.
South Africa is one of the 23 countries which sank to their lowest levels this year, placing it into the category of what the organisation termed as “flawed democracies”.
TI claimed that democratic countries tended to greatly outperform authoritarian regimes when controlling corruption, with full democracies maintaining a CPI average of 73, flawed democracies an average of 48, and non-democratic regimes just 32.
Transparency International’s SA chapter, Corruption Watch, said that the index showed that government’s attempts to curb corruption were ineffective and that in the 12 years since the country first appeared on the Corruption Perceptions Index, it’s never scored as low as it had in 2023.
Executive director at Corruption Watch Karam Singh said that despite the large media attention surrounding corruption in conjunction with investigations such as the Zondo Commission, justice remained unattainable for the parties implicated.
“There is an urgency to our problem of corruption, as citizens witness the unraveling of cities and infrastructure because of years of impunity and state capture. With elections looming in a few months, the need for accountable leaders of integrity could not be more critical,” Singh said.
Senior Researcher of the Corruption Watch Melusi Ncala said that the rating was currently two points below the country’s maiden score of 43, making it one of 23 countries that have reached their lowest scores this year, on par with Burkina Faso, Kosovo and Vietnam on the global index.
“We do have a government that, on the one hand, establishes structures for the fight against corruption but at the same time, those structures are not independent and fully resourced,” Ncala said.
However, this stands in stark contrast considering President Cyril Ramaphosa’s claim that the government was strengthening the fight against crime and corruption.
Ramaphosa said that the ruling party was proudly in the process of renewing anti-corruption agencies.
“More effort must be made by prosecuting authorities to ensure that in cases presented to the courts evidence is properly prepared in advance,” Ramaphosa said.
In addition, the watchdog admitted that the executive continued to lead ongoing anti-corruption efforts that sought to draw in stakeholders from across society, including by setting up the National Anti-Corruption Advisory Council, and said that it presented an opportunity to launch anti-corruption campaigns geared towards political parties and their manifestos, and to mobilise the public and civil society to hold the country’s leaders to account.
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