SA, one of Africa’s largest economies, has regressed on an international index tracking perceptions of corruption in the public sector, stumbling into the category of flawed democracies and just one level above non-functioning regimes.
SA has been dogged by systemic corruption and looting of state-owned enterprises (SOEs). State capture cost the economy an estimated R500bn. The state capture commission found there was a symbiotic relationship between the ANC and politically connected individuals and private companies. It highlighted how the actions of the Gupta family, through their proximity to former president Jacob Zuma, hollowed out state institutions
Global anticorruption body Transparency International released its corruption perceptions index (CPI) 2023 report on Tuesday, which found that SA had regressed from a score of 43 in 2022, mustering 41 in 2023.
Transparency International’s local chapter, Corruption Watch, said that since it started tracking its progress on the index 12 years ago, “SA has never scored as low as 41 — until now. This score is a decline from the previous low of 42 in 2013, and two points below its maiden score of 43 in 2012. It is one of 23 countries that reached their lowest-ever scores this year, stumbling into the category of flawed democracies.”
The index is a global indicator of public sector corruption. It rates 180 countries and territories around the world based on perceptions of public sector corruption, using data from 13 external sources, including the World Bank, the World Economic Forum, private risk and consulting companies, and think-tanks. The index uses a scale of 0 to 100 where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean.
However, it measures perceptions of corruption and not corruption reported or experienced by the public.
The 2023 report states that countries with a strong rule of law and well-functioning democratic institutions often sit at the top of the index: “Democratic countries tend to greatly outperform authoritarian regimes when controlling corruption — full democracies have a CPI average of 73, flawed democracies have one of 48 and non-democratic regimes just 32.”
The lowest-scoring region in the index was Sub-Saharan Africa with 33 while Western Europe and the EU led the pack with 65.
In Africa, Seychelles was the top-performing country, scoring 71, while Somalia was at the bottom with 11. Botswana scored 59 and Namibia 49, while Eswatini scored 30 and Nigeria 25.
In the Americas, Canada led with 76 while Venezuela sat at the bottom with 13. In Western Europe and the EU, Denmark scored 90, while at the bottom was Hungary with 42.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) was the top-performing country in the Middle East and North Africa region with 68, while Syria scored a paltry 13.
In Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Georgia led with 53, while Turkmenistan scored 18, and in the Asia Pacific region New Zealand led the pack with 85 andNorth Korea achieved 17.
Europe’s superpower, Germany, scored 78 and was followed by France and the UK, which both scored 71. The US came in at 69.
The 2023 report noted there has been a global decline in justice and the rule of law since 2016. “The rise of authoritarianism in some countries contributes to this trend, and even in democratic contexts, the mechanisms that keep governments in check have weakened,” it read.
“Governments across the political spectrum have undermined justice systems, restricted civic freedoms and relied on non-democratic strategies to address recent challenges, including the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Against this backdrop, this year’s CPI shows that, despite the progress made in criminalising corruption and establishing specialised anticorruption institutions around the world, only 28 of the 180 countries measured by the CPI have improved their corruption levels, and 34 countries have significantly worsened.
“This limited progress is hardly surprising considering the chronic weaknesses of justice systems meant to detect, investigate, prosecute and adjudicate corruption cases.
“Ongoing under-resourcing of the judiciary, police and other justice institutions, combined with insufficient levels of independence from other branches of government, mean that corruption often goes unpunished,” the report states.
This comes at a time when the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has been criticised for its inept handling of state capture cases and its unsuccessful extradition of the Gupta brothers from the UAE in 2022.
In November 2023, the Investigating Directorate (ID) of the NPA blamed a shortage of specialised forensic accountants, auditors and financial investigators in its ranks for court defeats in state capture cases.
That was after the Middelburg specialised commercial crimes court struck former Eskom boss Matshela Koko’s R2.2bn fraud, corruption and money-laundering case off the roll due to unreasonable delays.
In May 2023, the ID filed an application for leave to appeal after its loss in the first state capture trial, citing “gross irregularity” after the court discharged the accused.
The case involved corruption charges the NPA brought against several officials from the Free State department of agriculture, accusing them and others of paying almost R25m to Gupta-linked company Nulane Investments for a study related to the infamous Vrede dairy farm project.
The CPI 2023 report recommended that governments strengthen the independence of the justice system; make justice more transparent; introduce integrity and monitoring mechanisms; promote co-operation within the justice system; improve access to justice; and expand avenues for accountability in “grand corruption cases”.
Transparency International chair François Valérian said: “Corruption will continue to thrive until justice systems can punish wrongdoing and keep governments in check. When justice is bought or politically interfered with, it is the people that suffer. Leaders should fully invest in and guarantee the independence of institutions that uphold the law and tackle corruption. It is time to end impunity for corruption.”
SA Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) national spokesperson Trevor Shaku expressed concern about the latest index, saying: “The main causes of the increase in corruption are the corrupt officials in the public sectors and stakeholders where money is misused and there seems to be no relevant evidence or reports on what the money is being spent on.
SA ranked 72 in 2013 and 41 a decade later, “both of which are unsatisfactory numbers”, he said.
“SA moving up 31 places on the corruption scale in 10 years is an alarming and disturbing statistic; however, it is not surprising that our country has excelled in corruption in such a short period of time. The public sector and its entities are badly managed, with various claims of corruption against government officials.”
Shaku said that despite the work done by the state capture commission, “there has been no effective arrest [that has] led to a successful prosecution. It is therefore clear that there is no sense of [urgency] from the government in addressing corruption.”
Update: January 30, 2024. This article has been updated with information from Saftu
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