The biggest types of corruption in South Africa
Civil society group Corruption Watch (CW) has published its annual report for 2022, highlighting the types of corruption plaguing South Africa.
CW said that the report comes at one of the lowest points in South Africa’s post-apartheid history, with public confidence in leaders almost non-existent, a failing power utility, dilapidated infrastructure, and a lack of essential services, such as health, education, policing and other essential services.
The organisation defines corruption as the abuse of entrusted power of resources, by anyone, for private gain.
“This definition seeks to articulate the view that corruption involves a symbiotic relationship between the public and private sectors,” said Karam Singh, executive director of CW.
“It manifests in various ways, from the illicit effort to accumulate power and authority to irregularly influence democratic processes, to outright theft of resources through unlawful re-direction and accumulation of state assets.”
CW said it that it had received over 38,000 allegations of corruption since its launch in 2012, with 2,168 reports of corruption in 2022,
Almost 25% of reports of corruption came from the mining sector. It said that its mining project targeted mining communities during public education and advocacy drives in the Free State, North West, and KwaZulu-Natal, leading to a high number of allegations.
It added that the report also blew the whistle on bad policing, which accounted for roughly 10% of allegations of corruption.
Allegations of corruption in business and education follow suit, making up 8% each.
The main type of corruption reported was maladministration, including mismanagement of funds, and fruitless and wasteful expenditure, which accounted for 25% of reports.
High levels of fraud (17%), nepotism and favouritism (13%) were also high.
| Type of Corruption | Percentage of total reports |
|---|---|
| Maladministration | 25% |
| Fraud | 17% |
| Nepotism and favouritism | 13% |
| Bribery and extortion | 11% |
| Dereliction of duty | 9% |
| Procurement irregularities | 9% |
CW said that there was a similar spread of reports between national and provincial government levels, accounting for 28% and 26%, respectively.
Local government corruption is the main source of whistle-blower complaints, totalling nearly two-thirds.
The three biggest culprits were Gauteng metropolitan municipalities – the City of Johannesburg, the City of Tshwane, and the City of Ekurhuleni – coming in it at 58% of all incidents reported regarding local government.
On a provincial level, similar to last year, a large number of complaints were in Gauteng.
- Gauteng – 36%
- Kwa-Zulu Natal – 18%
- Free State – 13%
- Mpumalanga – 11%
- Western Cape – 8%
- Limpopo – 5%
- Eastern Cape – 5%
- North West – 3%
- Northern Cape – 1%
According to the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), a leading global indicator of public sector corruption, which ranks 180 countries and territories across the globe, South Africa has a CPI of 43/100 – zero is highly corrupt, while a 100 is completely clean.
South Africa has a global rank of 72 in terms of corruption, meaning it was actually in the top 50% of the least corrupt countries in the world.
Seychelles is the least corrupt African country, with a CPI score of 70 and a global rank of 23.
Read: Treasury explains why it exempted Eskom from irregular and wasteful expenditure reporting
Loading ...
