Cape Town - Irregular transactions have become the order of the day, according to Corruption Watch’s (CW) 11th annual report, “Accelerating Justice”.
In the report released on Tuesday, CW said corruption in South Africa was both endemic and systemic, “part of the fabric of public governance from state-owned enterprises to most municipalities in the country”.
Since its launch in 2012, CW has received more than 38 000 complaints of alleged corruption, with an average of 3 490 reports per year.
Last year, the organisation collected 2 168 reports of corruption, with almost a quarter related to issues of graft in the mining sector.
“As in previous years, reporters blew the whistle on bad policing in 2022 – this represented the second most frequently reported focus area, accounting for approximately 11% of allegations of corruption. Completing the top four focus areas are allegations of corruption in businesses and education, accounting for 8% a piece,” CW said in a statement.
Types of corruption most reported were maladministration, including mismanagement of funds and fruitless and wasteful expenditure at 25%, fraud at 17%, employment irregularities, including nepotism and favouritism at 13%, bribery and extortion including sextortion at 11%, and dereliction of duty, as well as procurement irregularities, including kickbacks and the flouting of processes, both at 9%, CW said.
CW said corruption was so pervasive that it was spread equally between national and provincial government levels, accounting for 28% and 26% of graft allegations.
The organisation relies strongly on whistle-blower complaints and has advocated for enhanced protections and even the incentivisation of whistle-blowers.
In 2021, CW received 3 248 whistle-blower complaints, and during last year 2 168.
“Corruption Watch issues its annual report to showcase our body of work for the year that has passed, in this case 2022. We are committed to a range of activities to promote greater transparency, good governance, accountability and ethical conduct across government and society,” CW executive director, Karam Singh said.
“We hope that the government and other stakeholders take note of our annual report, what we are identifying as burning issues and priorities and that we see progress on key issues such as enhancing whistle-blower protection and support, reforming our public procurement system and implementing key recommendations from the Zondo Commission on Inquiry.”