South Africa ranks low in the bribery stakes, according to an international survey published by Transparency International (TI) — but it joins the majority of surveyed countries in the consensus that political parties are most affected by corruption.
The survey, conducted among 50 000 respondents from 62 countries by Gallup International between June and September this year, shows that in 36 countries, political parties were rated by the general public as the institution most affected by corruption. On a scale from a corrupt-free one to an extremely corrupt score of five, Ecuador fared most poorly with a score of 4,9.
South Africa produced a score of 3,8 for political parties, with a similar figure applying to police. The question put to those surveyed was: “To what extent do you perceive the following sectors in this country to be affected by corruption?” It provided 15 categories for assessment.
South Africa was joined by such countries as Cameroon, Georgia, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and Russia in viewing the police force as a corrupt institution.
Nigerians believed the police are the most corrupt institution, followed closely by political parties with 4,5 and Parliament with 4,2.
South Africans and Nigerians gave the best score to religious bodies — 2,3 and 2,4 respectively.
High levels of distrust of customs services was displayed by Albanians, Bulgarians, Cameroonians, Kosovo residents, Lithuanians, Moldovans, Romanians and Turks.
Meanwhile, fewer than 5% of South Africans indicated that any member of their household had to pay a bribe in the past year. It joined the most developed countries in this category, including Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States. It was also the only African state in this category.
Cameroon fared worst in this category, with more than 50% of households reporting that an individual in the household had to pay a bribe in the past year.
Noting the high global level of public distrust in political parties, TI global programmes director Cobus de Swardt said political parties are the training ground for most government leaders and parliamentarians.
“National laws should prohibit political parties and candidates for elected office from accepting donations designed to extract personal or policy favours and require them to disclose their funding sources.
“Political parties must themselves take internal measures to stamp out corruption and increase transparency, through fair candidate-selection procedures by running clean election campaigns and rejecting corrupt sources of funding,” he said.
The media scored 3,3 worldwide — about middle ranking in the survey — but in South Africa it got a reasonably high score of 2,8, second after religious institutions with 2,3. However, in Denmark the media was seen as being as corrupt as political parties — although the score was still reasonably high at 2,6.
In The Netherlands, the media scored a three — and together with business it was perceived as the most corrupt institution in that society.
In Norway, religious bodies together with business received the lowest score of 3,4, while tax revenue services scored the highest at 2,1. Tax revenue services scored the lowest in Portugal and Turkey.
Globally, political parties scored four, followed by Parliament/legislatures with 3,7, and police and judicial systems with 3,6. The least affected by corruption was the military with 2,9, NGOs with 2,8 and religious bodies with 2,7.
In South Africa, the scores were as follows: political parties 3,8, Parliament 3,4, judiciary 3,4, police 3,8, business 3,2, tax revenue 2,9, customs 3,1, media 2,8, medical services 3,4, education 3,2, registry and permit services (home affairs) 3,5, utilities three, military 2,9, NGOs 2,9, and religious bodies 2,3. — I-Net Bridge