Since 1994 no fewer than 24 major cases of political corruption have rocked South Africa. The latest, the parliamentary travel scam, is testing the South African public’s respect for the rule of law for the umpteenth time.
South Africa has respectable institutions of accountability — but there is a murky underworld of corruption that is barely being tapped, say commentators.
”We have only started to develop policy and measures to combat corruption in South Africa and as a result we’re probably only really scratching the surface in terms of what we know,” said Hennie van Vuuren, senior researcher in anti- corruption strategies at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS).
”As new cases unfold it’s clear that the roots of corruption are so deep in our political system as a result of the past that it is going to take a huge effort to rid us of that. However, this doesn’t mean that we’re in a crisis situation.”
In April this year the Centre for Public Integrity (CPI) released its first Global Integrity report based on a report card on corruption, openness and accountability. South Africa fared well and was placed sixth out of 25 countries. At the top of the list were the United States and Portugal; and at the bottom were Zimbabwe and Guatemala.
Marianne Camerer, a South African researcher who led the report card team, wrote: ”Almost a decade after transition to democratic rule, South Africa has a vibrant and active civil society and progressive and diverse media, unfettered in keeping vigilant watch over those in power.”
However, Colm Allan, the director of the Public Service Accountability Monitor at Rhodes University, says that within the public sector ”there is still a considerable distance to go in transforming the sense of entitlement that characterises South Africa’s civil service.
”The question is how we’re faring when we hold the mirror of the Constitution against the performance of the politicians. I don’t think we can say that we are doing very well.”
A second report, the National Victim Study, released by the ISS in March, is a quantitative study of 4 860 South Africans’ responses to crime. Of these, 13% of respondents felt that the police are underperforming because they are corrupt.
A global Transparency International survey found this year that most South Africans expect corruption to increase.
Of the 47 countries polled, South Africans were most pessimistic about government graft, with large numbers mistrusting the police, medical and education systems.
In the public sector, the special investigative unit, one of South Africa’s most powerful anti-corruption investigative bodies, reported to Parliament in June that for the year 2003/2004 it had recovered cash to the value of R14-million and its intervention prevented a further loss of R373-million.
It isn’t just the public sector that suffers from corruption. A global corporate crime survey by PriceWaterhouseCoopers last year indicated that South African companies fall victim to more crime than companies almost anywhere else in the world. A full 71%, or double the global average, have uncovered serious irregularities in the past two years.
”The extent of corruption in the private sector is probably a lot more extreme than we suspect at the moment,” said Van Vuuren.