Five years ago, South Africa was in the Top 5 African countries of which its citizens thought that its government was doing badly in the fight against corruption.
With 79% of the South African population agreeing that the government was losing the fight against corruption, South Africa, at 83%, topped the category for countries with the highest percentage of its population thinking that corruption was increasing with Ghana at 76% in second place and Nigerians third with three-quarters of its citizens sharing the same view.
Transparency International’s Global Corruption Barometer – Africa (GCB), done since 2003, when it was derived from a subset of questions commissioned through the Voice of the People survey conducted by Gallup International in 2002, is the largest, most detailed set of public opinion data on citizen’s views on corruption and direct experiences in Africa.
Based on a survey conducted in August and September 2015 across South Africa, interviewing 2 390 people, the report found five years ago that 46% of all respondents felt that the president or “people in his office” were involved in corruption (6th highest), that the same percentage or members of parliament were corrupt, almost half, 49%, of all government officials were involved in corruption and 48% felt that the police were corrupt.
A quarter also found that nothing will happen or change if you report corruption but the same percentage felt that reporting corruption is the most effective way to help combat it.
The most recent GCB, launched on Thursday, is based on fieldwork conducted in 34 countries between 2016 and 2018 by the pan-African research institution, Afrobarometer, as well as a survey conducted by Omega Research and it incorporates the views of close to 40 000 citizens in 35 countries across the continent of which 2 900 are South Africans who were surveyed between August and September 2018.
The report reiterated that corruption “is a major barrier to economic growth, good governance and basic freedoms” and that “the range of corruption challenges that African citizens face is complex and multifaceted, requiring fundamental and systemic changes”.
Same can be said of South Africa that, according to the report, has moved down seven places to No.12 but has seen increasing incidences of bribery and a growing mistrust in the police and judiciary.
Some of the key findings of the latest survey include that only 70% think government is doing badly in tackling corruption and 25% agreeing that it is doing a good job.
Those who think that corruption has increased have also dropped nearly 20% to 64% when compared to 2015 and when asked how many people are involved in corruption, the biggest drop was found in the category “president or his officials” from 46% to 38%. This can certainly be attributed to the election of President Cyril Ramaphosa, the fact that he dropped some ministers considered to be involved in corruption and state capture and his various pronouncements by him on his administration’s commitment to fight corruption.
A slight but insignificant drop in the number who thought that parliamentarians and government officials are involved in corruption was recorded, with both categories at 44%, but 49% think that members of the police service are involved in corruption and those who think that judges and magistrates are involved in corruption jumped from 23% five years ago, to 32% this time around.
And while the report notes that “Lesotho, Senegal, Swaziland, Namibia and South Africa also have bribery rates that are far lower than the average for the region with less than one-in-ten saying that they paid a bribe”, South Africa’s bribery rate has, in some cases even doubled over the last four years.
Our overall bribery rate increased from 7% to 18% of people who admitted that they have paid a bribe during the period under review. While only 2% disclosed that they paid a bribe for services at a public school or health centre in 2015, 14% admitted that they paid a bribe at a school in 2019 with 5% admitting that they have paid it “a few times” and 6% indicated that they paid a bribe at a clinic or hospital.
In 2015 a mere 3% admitted that they paid a bribe to a police officer, but according to the latest report, 19% admitted to paying a bribe with 6% confessing that they have done so “a few times”.
So while concern about the integrity of public officials is decreasing, key public institutions such as the police services and the judiciary are considered to be increasingly more corrupt and this further erodes public trust in the very institutions where people should report these incidences and the same institutions that should then investigate and prosecute these allegations.
Ensuring that people can safely report corruption when it happens and guaranteeing that punishment is fairly given as a result are fundamental requirements to reducing the prevalence of corruption. This then explains why only two-thirds feel that they can report corruption without fear and nearly two-thirds fear retaliation if they do.
More concerning is that, despite the amendments made to the Protected Disclosures Act and a marked increase in incidences where whistleblowers speak out, only 34% say that they can report corruption without fear while 63% are discouraged to report it because they would risk retaliation or other negative consequences and only 40% agree that they are likely to report corruption.
The report remains the most authoritive barometer to measure perceptions of corruption and would be a valuable tool to determine Ramaphosa’s seventh priority, as highlighted in his State of the Nation Address, to build “a capable, ethical and developmental state” and confirmed government’s commitment “to build an ethical state in which there is no place for corruption, patronage, rent-seeking and plundering of public money”.
To give effect to this commitment, government, civil society, academia and business should come together to look at constructive and practical ways to deal with the stark realities highlighted in the GCB and to work on improving perceptions about government and the role its leaders play in corruption and also to launch the most vigorous campaign against bribery in the civil service.
Moreover, the cost of corruption and its dire impact on the poor cannot be ignored or underestimated and the fact that our economy is shrinking, unemployment growing and poverty increasing, we need to, as a matter of extreme urgency, restore public trust in government and its ability to fight corruption and deliver better services.
But as the report also indicated, all the above demands an active citizenry that is adequately equipped to fearlessly blow the whistle on corruption and the corrupt, who work with authorities to bring the corrupt to book and who constantly, through direct confrontation with government, demand firmer action and rigorous processes that constantly make the world smaller for the corrupt and demand transparency and accountability from those in power.
It does not only help when less people think that the president and his cabinet are less corrupt but more consider the police and judiciary as corrupt and more citizens feel it is the norm to pay a bribe and act in the most unethical ways. We need the right balance. The pace has been set.
