Crystal clear: The Zondo Commission, chaired by the former Chief Justice Raymond Zondo - seen here with President Cyril Ramaphosa during the
handover of its report - was unequivocal in identifying public procurement as the primary artery through which State Capture flowed. Photo: GCIS
The release of the 2026 Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) confirms a sobering reality: South Africa’s anti-corruption needle is not just stuck; it is being held back within a global context of democratic backsliding. With a score of 41, the country has remained unchanged for three years, lingering below the global average of 42.
Yet to view this purely as a domestic failure is to ignore the widening enforcement and accountability gap across the globe. In 2026, it is not that South Africa is standing still. It is that the illicit economy, organised crime and transnational kleptocracy are evolving at a pace that traditional, fragmented governance struggles to match.
South Africa is moving – state capture prosecutions are underway and the illicit economy is being “disrupted” – but its progress is mediated by institutional sluggishness, variable political will and a global retreat from an integrity consensus on issues such as bribery of public officials.
While South Africa struggles to commit to a definitive institutional architecture to combat corruption, fails to fix public procurement and continues to allow whistleblowers to face the worst forms of retribution, the existential challenge that corruption poses to a thriving democracy remains unchallenged. South Africa’s current struggle occurs within an unprecedented global context of democratic backsliding and a retreat from the fight against kleptocracy. The 2026 CPI report identifies once-stable pillars of integrity, specifically the United States (64) and the United Kingdom (70), as falling to historic lows.
The shift in the United States is particularly jarring. Recent executive actions recalibrating enforcement “priorities” have announced a monumental retreat from traditional anti-bribery enforcement in favour of “strategic commercial advantages.” We are no longer operating in an environment where prior global norms against bribery are recognised and enforced.
We are operating in a fragmenting order where kleptocrats find easy harbour, eroding the rule of law and pursuing self-enrichment with impunity. This global retreat makes South Africa’s internal fight both more lonely and more urgent. We cannot continue to appear to stand still while the world moves on. We are in a global defensive posture where the illicit economy has become more organised than the states trying to regulate it.
The most critical anti-corruption debate facing South Africa remains the “institutional architecture” required to outpace organised crime. In his 2026 State of the Nation Address (Sona), President Cyril Ramaphosa referred obliquely to “finalising the approach” to a permanent anti-corruption body. Notably, he avoided naming the Office of Public Integrity (OPI), the title specifically proposed in the NACAC 2025 Final Close-Out Report.
To be effective, this architecture must follow a rigorous two-track process:
Legislative reform of the SIU: The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) must be fixed as an urgent priority through legislative reform.
The creation of a new independent anti-corruption agency (ACA): This must be a brand-new, purpose-built Chapter 9 institution that is STIRS-compliant (Specialised, Trained, Independent, Resourced and Secure) from its inception. Unlike the current Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (IDAC), which remains a statutory body under executive concurrence, the ACA must be constitutionally entrenched.
This entrenchment is the only way to shield the agency from the “Scorpions-style” vulnerability that haunts South African enforcement.
The new agency must have super-protections relating to hiring and firing and must have internal integrity scrutiny holding its personnel to the highest ethical standards. The independence protections of such an agency must ensure that it is insulated from political manipulation.
The establishment of a new institution is a lengthy process and may require amendments to the Constitution. Over a decade after the Glenister judgments, it remains an indictment of the so-called post-state capture moment that we are not further along as a country in settling the institutional architecture required to reverse endemic corruption.
The Judicial Commission of Inquiry into State Capture (The Zondo Report) was unequivocal: public procurement is the primary artery through which State Capture flowed.
The Public Procurement Act of 2024 aims to consolidate a fragmented system but it remains subject to a range of challenges. While the Act introduces a centralised debarment database, it retains significant “ministerial discretion” over exemptions. In a country with a CPI of 41, this discretion is an open invitation for rent-seeking. History shows that “discretion” is the primary mechanism by which rules are circumvented to favour politically connected syndicates.
Without a truly independent Public Procurement Tribunal that is entirely insulated from political pressure, this Act risks becoming a digital facade for old-school patronage. In addition, until stronger transparency requirements are put in place over the entire supply chain process, the public procurement system will remain vulnerable to industrial scale looting.
Perhaps the most glaring gap in the current reform agenda is the safety and support of those who stand on the front lines: whistleblowers. In the 2026 Sona, President Cyril Ramaphosa committed to introducing the Whistle-Blower Protection Bill, promising to criminalise retaliation and provide psychosocial, legal and financial support.
However, civil society and opposition parties have noted that we are still “living on promises.”
For years, civil society has called for a dedicated public whistleblower centre within the public sector that whistleblowers can trust to bring their allegations.
It has previously been mooted that such a centre could be headed up by retired judges. Regardless of the final institutional arrangements, the position that whistleblowers find themselves in today is still one of peril.
As the proposed Fallen Whistleblowers Bill, introduced in early 2026 by opposition parties considers, the following is required to make progress on whistleblower support and protection: A support fund and anonymous mechanisms, .
Without these material protections, courage may remain a death sentence in South Africa for whistleblowers. The recent assassination of Marius van der Merwe, a whistleblower who testified at the Madlanga Commission serves as a harrowing reminder that syndicates act faster than legislative cycles.
The President’s newly proposed National Illicit Disruption Programme aims to target high-risk sectors using AI and analytics. While technological disruption is welcome, the reliance on ad-hoc programmes reveals a state playing a frantic game of catch-up.
The Madlanga Commission of Inquiry’s interim report (January 2026) found prima facie evidence of “Blue Capture” – organised criminal syndicates hollowing out from within the SAPS and Metro Police. When senior law enforcement officials are alleged to be protecting the very cartels they are meant to disrupt, task teams are merely performative gestures.
Now more than ever, the rationale for a dedicated, independent and specialised anti-corruption agency is required that can drive successful systemic investigations and prosecute the organised crime cartels and their political handlers without relying on a compromised police service.
President Ramaphosa, in the Sona, lauded the recovery of R11 billion in assets. While technically a success of current domestic capacity, it is a failure of scale. With an estimated R500 billion loss from state capture alone, our current recovery rate is marginal at best.
We need bold, innovative solutions to address the global challenge of grand corruption, kleptocracy and illicit assets that starve our democracy of the resources necessary to address poverty and inequality.
While South Africa considers a dedicated anti-corruption agency domestically, international discussion and work is taking place that seeks to establish an International Anti-Corruption Court (IACCourt). The IACCourt is a proposed treaty-based international judicial institution designed to hold corrupt public officials (kleptocrats) and their accomplices accountable when national governments are unable or unwilling to do so. It is intended to function as a court of last resort, focused exclusively on grand corruption. The IACCourt will have two divisions – a criminal division to pursue prosecution of kleptocrats, their accomplices and enablers and a civil division that will focus on the recovery of stolen assets.
Support for the IACCourt is the strategic “gear shift” South Africa needs. Domestic law enforcement is technically outmatched by the borderless nature of illicit financial flows. A “two-division” IACCourt would provide the international legal standing to compel the repatriation of assets hidden in offshore havens, moving asset recovery from a domestic stalemate to a global offensive.
To turn the corner, we must move beyond commissions of inquiry and ad-hoc task teams. We must fix our existing institutions, empower the creation of new institutions that close the enforcement gap, ensure public procurement is transparent and enforceable and provide substantive, funded protection for whistleblowers.
Without these developments, South Africa will continue to see a stagnant CPI score on the Corruption Perceptions Index.
Most importantly, we must lead the charge away from global fragmentation and backsliding to increased coordination against transnational organised crime and corruption.
We cannot continue running in place. We are in a high-stakes race for the future of our democracy and it is time we built the engine – not just the task teams – to win it.
Karam Singh is an experienced attorney and leader specialising in anti-corruption and access to justice. After senior roles at Corruption Watch and the SAHRC, he leads GGA’s advocacy efforts.