Corruption is crippling South Africa
EXPERTS have warned that South Africa’s ranking in the 2018 Corruption Perceptions Index should serve as a wake-up call for the criminal justice system to properly prosecute corruption before it further cripples the country.
The index, released last week by Transparency International (TI), placed South Africa 73rd out of 180 countries for corruption and ninth in sub-Saharan Africa.
The index is said to rank each country by their perceived levels of corruption – according to experts and business people.
It uses a scale of zero to 100, where zero is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean.
With an average score of 43, South Africa remains within two-thirds of the countries that scored below 50.
Political analyst Sanusha Naidoo said the rating was not a surprise and South Africans were getting frustrated and tired about corruption. “(The) government needs to take this as a warning. Such rankings could cause long-term reputational damage and possibly prevent foreign investment. Corrupt individuals need to be brought to account, especially those who have stolen state money.”
Dr Witness Maluleke, a senior corruption and criminology lecturer at the University of Limpopo, said the index reminded South Africans of what they already knew. “Corruption breathes in every corner of this country. I could go down to town tomorrow and buy a driver’s licence like I’m buying a loaf of bread from the shop without any consequences.”
He said the criminal justice system needed to effectively prosecute high-level corruption, and that all stakeholders, including law enforcement agencies and non-profit anti-crime organisations, should band together to root out the scourge.
David Lewis, director of
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executive non-profit POLICE Minister Bheki Cele recently revealed that 135 convictions were secured out of 1 959 cases of suspected corruption reported to SAPS in terms of the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act in the past four years.
In a parliamentary response, Cele said 370 of those cases were still under investigation.
A further 2 262 cases were reported to the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigations (the Hawks), during the same period and of those cases, 2 040 were ready for trial and only 523 had resulted in convictions.
There were also 581 cases of suspected corruption and bribery reported to the detective services during the same period starting April 2015.
Of those corruption and bribery cases, only 99 had resulted in convictions. Twenty-three were still being investigated. organisation Corruption Watch, said the State Capture Inquiry was a textbook example of the relationship between corruption and the undermining of democracy.
“We have seen how, in order to loot public funds, the perpetrators have had to undermine those key pillars of democracy that are responsible for holding those in power to account.”
However, he believed that great strides would be taken soon in prosecuting high-profile cases of corruption.
The executive secretary at the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution, Lawson Naidoo, added that the credibility of the National Prosecuting Authority needed to be restored. He believes that with the recent appointment of advocate Shamila Batohi as its new head, the country could see positive change.
“We need to rebuild the institution and change the public’s mindsets on how corruption is dealt with. I believe this can happen with Batohi at the helm. (Cyril) Ramaphosa has also demonstrated that he is committed to eradicating corruption by making major changes in leadership.” Batohi started on February 1. Anti-crime activist Yusuf Abramjee said: “Corruption has become a way of life and people are fed up. The police, the Special Investigating Unit and the National Prosecuting Authority needs to move with speed. Corruption is a cancer and authorities need to show the political world they can act quickly and decisively.”
He said whistle-blowers must also be protected.
Ramaphosa also responded to the index during a dialogue with the president of Business Unity South Africa, Sipho Pityana, at the inaugural Business Economic Indaba last week.
He said corruption needed to be dealt with harshly and there should be redemption and accountability. Ramaphosa said a key priority this year was effective transformation.
The index also revealed that Western Europe and the European Union were the highest scoring regions, while the sub-Saharan African region remained the worst performing.
Denmark was ranked as the cleanest country with a score of 88 and Somalia the dirtiest with a score of 10. Close on the heels of Somalia were Syria, South Sudan, Yemen, and North Korea.