Members of Parliament quizzed President Cyril Ramaphosa on affirmative action policies. Picture: Elmond Jiyane/GCIS
PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa may have ascended to the top job in the country with the promise of ridding the country and the ANC of corruption, but it seems South Africans think that corruption has worsened under his leadership.
According to an Afrobarometer survey, a large number of South Africans believe that government officials and public servants are rogue and have benefited from corruption.
Almost 64% of those surveyed say that corruption increased in the past year, while 49% say it has “increased a lot”.
The Afrobarometer team, led by the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation and Plus 94 Research, interviewed 1,600 adult South Africans in May and June this year.
Those surveyed believed that the government was largely handling the anti-corruption fight badly. They also believed that channels to report graft were increasingly seen as unsafe.
“State institutions are widely seen as corrupt. Half or more of citizens say ‘most’ or ‘all’ officials are involved in corruption in the police (56%), the president’s office (53%), local government councils (51%) and Parliament (50%). Non-governmental organisations, traditional leaders and religious leaders are less commonly seen as corrupt,” the survey said.
The Afrobarometer found that seven in 10 South Africans say the government is performing “fairly badly” or “very badly” in the fight against corruption.
Another interesting thing the survey found was that three out of four South Africans (76%) say people risk retaliation or other negative consequences if they report incidents of corruption, a 13% increase compared with 2018.
The survey not only found that South Africans had to pay a bribe to access government services, but they also had to pay a bribe to get help from the police and to access government documents.
Seven out of 10 citizens believe that officials who break the law often go unpunished.
Even with the glaring visibility of corruption on the national agenda, almost 64% of South Africans say corruption has worsened over the past year. Only 15% believe that corruption has decreased.
“Despite a particular emphasis on anti-corruption efforts focusing on the presidency, more than half (53%) of South Africans believe that ‘most’ or ‘all’ officials in the presidency are involved in corruption,” the survey said.