‘Cure corruption in SA, by tackling it within the ANC first’

The appalling 2020 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) results released by Transparency International on Thursday emphasises the extent to which corruption has affected the ability of countries to monitor their healthcare responses to Covid-19.

David Lewis, Executive Director of Corruption Watch said corruption needs to be fought in the ANC first, if the public is to be convinced that corruption can successfully be fought. He added that if the government did not monitor the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines in coming weeks, this would negatively affect the CPI for the following year.

“If the government messes up the distributions of the vaccines in the same way that they did with the purchase and distributions of the PPE, then the CPI will worsen next year,” he exclaimed.

South Africa achieved a low score of 44 and ranks at 69, alongside Bulgaria, Hungary, Jamaica, Romania and Tunisia in terms of public perceptions around corruption. For the past eight years, the country has more or less stagnated at 44, forming part of the two-thirds of countries with a score below 50, showing concerning levels of corruption. In the previous CPI the country scored 44. In 2018 and 2017 it scored 43. The year prior to that, South Africa managed to get a score of 45 (2016).

Liezl Groenewald, a business ethicist at the Ethics Institute said corruption in South Africa was rife because people’s behaviour was determined and influenced by their values and the values of the society in which they live.

“If societal values make it ‘okay’ for people to steal, then they will do so. It is also about being extrinsically motivated by greed and by ‘the self’. Ethics requires that we act in ways that are good for ‘the self’ and good for others.”

Groenewald concluded by saying the ruling party needs to lead by example in the combat against corruption.

“The world has lost trust in SA due to its high levels of corruption. This, of course, impacts foreign investment and job creation. For our economy to recover, we need to demonstrate that the country/its leadership is serious about changing the current culture of corruption. Talk is cheap,” she said.

• asandam@citizen.co.za

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.