{"id":107863,"date":"2015-12-24T15:00:38","date_gmt":"2015-12-24T13:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=107863"},"modified":"2015-12-24T11:27:55","modified_gmt":"2015-12-24T09:27:55","slug":"is-sa-the-most-corrupt-country-in-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/trending\/107863\/is-sa-the-most-corrupt-country-in-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Is SA the most corrupt country in Africa?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Regional and international media were quick to run headlines that South Africa was \u201cleading Africa\u2019s new corruption surge<\/a>\u201d and had knocked Nigeria off its perch as the \u201cmost corrupt\u201d country in Africa<\/a> after the results of a public opinion poll on corruption in 28 African countries were\u00a0published last week.<\/p>\n

But does the report, titled People and corruption: Africa survey 2015 \u2013 Global Corruption Baromete<\/i>r<\/a>, make such claims? And does it really rank South Africa as \u201cthe continent\u2019s most corrupt nation<\/a>\u201d?<\/p>\n

What is the Global Corruption Barometer?<\/h3>\n

\n<\/a><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

The Global Corruption Barometer is a public opinion survey that has been published by Transparency International<\/a> in partnership with the African research network Afrobarometer<\/a> (which conducts the face-to-face surveys) since 2003.<\/p>\n

The current Africa survey included just over 43,000 respondents from 28 different countries in sub-Saharan Africa, who were interviewed between March 2014 and September 2015. Among other questions, the survey \u201casked people how they thought corruption in their country had changed\u201d over the 12 month period before the survey was taken.<\/p>\n

In the key findings, the 2015 survey report stated that the \u201cmajority of Africans (58%) say that corruption has increased over the past year. This is particularly the case in South Africa where more than four-in-five citizens (83%) say they have seen corruption rise recently.\u201d<\/p>\n

The report later said that \u201c\u2026 people living in South Africa, Ghana and Nigeria were the most likely to say that they think corruption has risen in the 12 months prior to when the survey was conducted\u201d, and then went\u00a0on to rank South Africa, Ghana and Nigeria as the \u201c3 worst performers\u201d in sub-Saharan Africa.<\/p>\n

How people perceive corruption in own country<\/h3>\n

Afrobarometer\u2019s Southern African communications coordinator Sibusiso Nkomo explained to Africa Check that in countries with large population (like South Africa and Nigeria) a national sample of around 2,400 people were interviewed. The sample was then weighted to be representative of the country\u2019s adult population.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf the several questions we ask, one would be how many of the following people the respondent thinks is involved in corruption \u2013 or whether they have not heard enough to say \u2013 and the list goes from the president to members of parliament, government officials and different parts of society,\u201d says Sibusiso. \u201cThen the person will indicate \u2018none\u2019, \u2018some\u2019, \u2018most\u2019, \u2018all\u2019, or that they don\u2019t know. It\u2019s not data in the sense that there are numbers that say these are<\/i> the levels of corruption or bribery. It is how people perceive it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking to Africa Check from Germany, the survey\u2019s author and Transparency International research coordinator Coralie Pring, added that these are \u201cperceptions and experiences in [the respondents\u2019] own<\/i> countries\u201d and not of other countries in the region.<\/p>\n

What the report says about South Africa<\/h3>\n

\n<\/a><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

The headline that South Africa is the most corrupt country in Africa is \u201cobviously wrong,\u201d says David Lewis, head of South African non-profit organisation Corruption Watch<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Pring confirmed this, saying that the responses to the questions, rather, were a barometer of \u201chow people think that the level has changed<\/i> [over a 12-month period], not what the level of corruption in the country is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important \u2013 if you have respect for data,\u201d said Lewis, \u201cto know that [South Africa is] not the \u2018most corrupt\u2019 country, just as it\u2019s important to note that the perception of corruption is increasing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 2010\/2011 survey report showed that 62% of the South African respondents<\/a> then thought that corruption had increased over the previous 12 months. In 2013, it went up to\u00a072%<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat this perception is widespread and increasing as rapidly as it is should ring alarm bells. If [South Africa doesn\u2019t do] something it might get<\/i> to be the most corrupt country in Africa.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is an important feature of the report \u2013 which also asked respondents how they felt their respective governments were doing in the fight against corruption.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnderstanding how ordinary people think their government is doing in regard to addressing corruption,\u201d the report read, \u201callows us to assess whether governments are perceived to be making the right steps and if they are communicating these efforts effectively to their citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Perceptions drive lack of trust\u2019<\/h3>\n

Lewis added that while actual corruption is almost impossible to calculate accurately \u2013 a \u201ccrime in which two parties are colluding in a clandestine act\u201d, by its nature, obscures the actual extent of such acts, as Africa Check has reported previously<\/a> \u2013 perceptions of corruption are particularly important.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the most devastating impacts of corruption,\u201d he said, \u201cis to massively reduce trust in government and the private sector, in democratic institutions. Perceptions will drive that lack of trust.\u201d<\/p>\n

In January 2016, Transparency International will be releasing a further report from their Corruption Perception Index, on corruption both in the region but also worldwide, this time taking into account the views of experts \u2013 but this should not necessarily be seen as \u201cmore important\u201d than the current survey.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe feel it is absolutely vital to understand what ordinary people think,\u201d said Pring, because \u201cthey experience corruption on a daily basis, through petty [acts].\u201d For example, the survey found that the poorest respondents were \u201ctwice as likely as the most affluent in the region to have paid a bribe in the past 12 months\u201d.<\/p>\n

Conclusion:\u00a0Claims that South Africa is\u00a0most corrupt African nation are incorrect<\/h3>\n

Media claims that South Africa is the most corrupt nation in Africa are incorrect, and grossly misrepresent the findings of the Global Corruption Barometer Africa survey.<\/p>\n

Residents of Ghana, too, appear to be\u00a0grappling with its supposed \u201csecond worst\u201d ranking, a claim roundly rejected by its president<\/a>, John Mahama.<\/p>\n

What the report does tell us, is that perceptions of corruption across the African continent can vary widely between countries and regions, and that the issue of perceived and actual corruption is a complex one.<\/p>\n

Researched by Nechama Brodie – see the original article here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

More on corruption<\/h3>\n

Corruption has no place in government: Zuma<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

SA fails to honour undertaking to fight corruption \u2013 report<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Corruption in South Africa is scaring global businesses away<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

10 corruption scandals that rocked South Africa<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new report on corruption in Africa has found that South Africa, Ghana and Nigeria fared the worst out of 28 countries surveyed. But does this mean that SA is now \u201cthe most corrupt nation in Africa?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":46270,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3939,26],"class_list":["post-107863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-corruption","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107863"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107863\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":107865,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107863\/revisions\/107865"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}