Corruption has become fashionable, says analyst as SA slips down index
AS THE global anti-corruption movement Transparency International’s (TI) 2022 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) showed that South Africa had slid further down the rankings, a political analyst said he feared corruption was in vogue.
Political analyst Ntsikelelo Breakfast said: “Corruption has become fashionable in South Africa. It is a phenomenon embedded in the state machinery and particularly at local government level as can be seen from the reports by the auditor-general every year.”
However, Breakfast said there were signs all was not lost in the war against corruption.
He pointed to the recent incident where the National Prosecuting Authority’s Assets Forfeiture Unit and the Special Investigating Unit had obtained a preservation order to freeze five properties worth millions of rands linked to the ongoing probe into fraud at the National Lotteries Commission.
The TI report said South Africa had barely shifted position on the CPI over the 11 years that Corruption Watch, TI’s local chapter, has been tracking its progress.
“Now ranked at 43, the country is back where it started in 2012, with very little upward movement over the past decade,” the report said.
South Africa shares its position with Benin, Bulgaria, Ghana and Senegal on the global index.
Corruption Watch executive director Karam Singh said: “The fact that South Africa has slipped a point at a time when there appears to be some momentum in bringing the corrupt to book, following the findings of the Zondo Commission reports, is particularly galling.”
Singh said it was hardly comforting there were leaders paying lip service to the anti-corruption agenda in an environment that was “not just hostile but extremely dangerous for whistle-blowers and those activists seeking to address the huge inequality and injustices wrought by corruption”.
Singh said there had been some encouraging progress in advancing implementation of the National Anti-Corruption Strategy, which advocates a whole-of-society approach to countering corruption in South Africa.
He said the appointment towards the end of last year of the National Anti-Corruption Advisory Council to drive the process forward “gives a faint glimmer of hope at a time when people see very little to be hopeful about”.