How South Africa compares to the world’s least and most corrupt nations
Transparency International has published its latest Corruption Perceptions Index, showing that South Africa has a long road ahead of it to fight corruption that has permeated through government in recent years.
The index aggregates data from a number of different sources that provide perceptions by business people and country experts of the level of corruption in the public sector.
The score is calculated using 13 different data sources from 12 different institutions that capture perceptions of corruption within the past two years.
According to Transparency International, the majority of countries covered by the index (180) are making little or no progress in ending corruption – but South Africa in particular has performed significantly worse in 2017, dropping from 64th to 71st in the ranking.
In terms of its corruption score, South Africa scored 43/100 on a scale of 0 to 100, where 100 represents ‘clean’. SA’s score is lower than the previous year’s 45/100, indicating that perceived corruption levels in the country have increased over the past 24 months, effectively reversing the improvements made over the preceding periods.
South Africa ranks above the sub-Saharan average (32/100), but is still only ranked 9th in the region, below Namibia, Mauritius and Senegal. Botswana and Seychelles are the least corrupt nations in the region, according to the Index.
New Zealand, with a score of 89, was ranked as the least corrupt in the world, followed by Denmark, Finland, Norway and Switzerland – while Somalia, with a score of 9, was ranked as the most corrupt nation in the world, below Syria, South Sudan and Afghanistan.
“Countries with the least protection for press and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) also tend to have the worst rates of corruption,” the group said.
“Every week at least one journalist is killed in a country that is highly corrupt. The analysis, which incorporates data from the Committee to Protect Journalists, shows that in the last six years, more than 9 out of 10 journalists were killed in countries that score 45 or less on the index.”
To combat corruption, Transparency International appealed to governments to:
- Encourage free speech and an independent media, and to engage with society.
- Minimise regulations on media, including traditional and new media, and ensure that journalists can work without fear of repression or violence.
- Promote laws that focus on access to information.
- Push for freedom reforms at the national and global level.
- Proactively disclose relevant public interest information in open data formats.
Least corrupt countries
| 2017 Rank | Country | 2017 Score | 2016 Score | 2015 Score | 2014 Score | 2013 Score | 2012 Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New Zealand | 89 | 90 | 88 | 91 | 91 | 90 |
| 2 | Denmark | 88 | 90 | 91 | 92 | 91 | 90 |
| 3 | Finland | 85 | 89 | 90 | 89 | 89 | 90 |
| 3 | Norway | 85 | 85 | 87 | 86 | 86 | 85 |
| 3 | Switzerland | 85 | 86 | 86 | 86 | 85 | 86 |
| 6 | Singapore | 84 | 84 | 85 | 84 | 86 | 87 |
| 6 | Sweden | 84 | 88 | 89 | 87 | 89 | 88 |
| 8 | Canada | 82 | 82 | 83 | 81 | 81 | 84 |
| 8 | Luxembourg | 82 | 81 | 81 | 82 | 80 | 80 |
| 8 | Netherlands | 82 | 83 | 87 | 83 | 83 | 84 |
| 8 | United Kingdom | 82 | 81 | 81 | 78 | 76 | 74 |
South Africa
| 2017 Rank | Country | 2017 Score | 2016 Score | 2015 Score | 2014 Score | 2013 Score | 2012 Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 71 | South Africa | 43 | 45 | 44 | 44 | 42 | 43 |
Most corrupt countries
| 2017 Rank | Country | 2017 Score | 2016 Score | 2015 Score | 2014 Score | 2013 Score | 2012 Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 171 | Equatorial Guinea | 17 | 17 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 171 | Guinea-Bissau | 17 | 16 | 17 | 19 | 19 | 25 |
| 171 | Korea (North) | 17 | 12 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 |
| 171 | Libya | 17 | 14 | 16 | 18 | 15 | 21 |
| 175 | Sudan | 16 | 14 | 12 | 11 | 11 | 13 |
| 175 | Yemen | 16 | 14 | 18 | 19 | 18 | 23 |
| 177 | Afghanistan | 15 | 15 | 11 | 12 | 8 | 8 |
| 178 | Syria | 14 | 13 | 18 | 20 | 17 | 26 |
| 179 | South Sudan | 12 | 11 | 15 | 15 | 14 | N/A |
| 180 | Somalia | 9 | 10 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 |
SA’s fight against corruption
The index covers data for 2017, and thus does not include the transition of political power that took place in the latter weeks of the year, where Cyril Ramaphosa was elected as president of the ruling ANC.
Since being elected as president of the country earlier in February, Ramaphosa has made wide-sweeping changes to his cabinet, looking to undo much of the damage done by ministers elected by his predecessor, Jacob Zuma, in key offices.
Ramaphosa pegged much of his campaign for the ANC leadership on the promise to clean up government, and spoke tough on government graft during his visit to the World Economic Forum in Davos earlier in the year.
“Cleaning up clearly is going to be quite a mammoth task, but we have to start somewhere. Our people are clamoring for a clean government and that is what we are going to give them,” he said.
On Monday (26 February) Ramaphosa reshuffled his cabinet, booting out many ministers who were seen as compromised or heavily implicated in state capture – one of the biggest corruption scandals in South Africa’s recent history.
In their place, Ramaphosa appointed returning politicians such as Pravin Gordhan and Nhlanhla Nene, who are widely seen as lawmakers who spearheaded the fight against graft in government, before their resistance ultimately led to them being fired.
Meanwhile, several inquiries have been set up by parliament to investigate state capture and those implicated in it. The Hawks and the NPA have also made stride to chase down those accused of orchestrating the deals that robbed the state of billions.
Read: Ramaphosa’s massive cabinet reshuffle – including a new finance minister
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