Eradicating The Scourge Of Corruption

In South Africa, corruption poses a massive challenge. How can we tackle this problem?

- Theuns Eloff

Transparency International publishes an annual Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) which measures “perceived levels of corruption, as determined by expert assessments and opinion surveys” in 175 countries. The CPI’s definition of corruption is the misuse of public power for private benefit. It therefore focuses mainly on corruption in and by the public sector. In 2015 South Africa was ranked 61st out of 168 countries, with a score of 44 out of 100. A score of 100 means that a country is virtually free of corruption and a score of 1 means that the country is very corrupt.

What is particularly disturbing in SA is that senior political leaders employ their positions of power and questionable methods to enrich themselves by, for example, awarding tenders to family members, and use public money for their personal needs and affairs. Willie Hofmeyr, former head of the now disbanded Scorpions, reported to Parliament in 2011 that between R25bn and R30bn had disappeared from the state’s coffers in this way.

Widespread corruption is a sign of a failing state and indicates a lack of transparency in the state. It is a waste of taxpayers’ money and affects service delivery at local and national level extremely negatively.*

In 2016, Gwede Mantashe, secretary general of the ANC, said that one of the three things that will destroy the ANC soon, is corruption. In a similar vein, the 101 ANC stalwarts said in their 2017 statement that “(w)e have observed the ill-begotten wealth among some of our leaders at all levels” and that “the leadership of the ANC has […] pre-occupied itself with defending personal interests, interests of colleagues, families and friends, at the expense of the people of South Africa, particularly the poor…” and “failed to act decisively against corruption [...] in the ANC and the Alliance”.