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THURSDAY JANUARY 23 2014 17Comment

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AS THE world remem-bers Nelson Man-dela’s death, the factthat he was a man ofprinciple is a clear ele-

ment of his success as a leader andoverall greatness. He understoodthe vital importance of the consti-tutional principles of accountabili-ty and the rule of law.

It is therefore saddening to seehow far some in the ruling elitehave strayed from the example setby this great man.

An important barometer of theextent of this problem is growingpublic sector corruption, wherebypublic funds arebeing divertedaway from thepublic goodtowards privateinterests.

Of course pri-vate sector cor-ruption is also aproblem, butuntil we get ahandle on corrup-tion in government, private sectorcorruption will flourish.

South Africans certainly thinkthat public sector corruption is get-ting worse. Transparency Interna-tional’s 2013 global CorruptionPerception Index shows that SouthAfrica has dropped 34 places since2001, with half the decline of 17places occurring since 2009.

South Africa is currently rankedat number 72 out of 175 countriesand heading downwards.

The Human Sciences ResearchCouncil’s annual South AfricanSocial Attitudes Survey shows theproportion of people who thinkthat tackling corruption should bea national priority almost dou-bling, from 14 percent to 26 per-cent in the five-year period

between 2006 and 2011.This trend is supported by the

latest 2013 Afrobarometer report,“Governments falter in fight tocurb corruption”, released inNovember. The report, based onsurveys of 51 000 people in 34African countries, shows thatSouth Africa is one of the countrieswhere there is a notable increase inpublic perceptions that corruptionis getting worse, particularly since2008.

This is in contrast with countriessuch as Botswana, Malawi,Mozambique, Senegal and Zam-bia, where people believe that their

governmentsare makinggains incurbingpublic sec-tor corrup-tion.

Interest-ingly, SouthAfrica is bet-ter placedthan many

other Africancountries to tackle this problem.There are 13 public sector agenciesthat have a particular legal or poli-cy role to play in fighting graft.

Moreover, a number of nationalmechanisms – such as the NationalAnti-Corruption Task Team – havebeen established to co-ordinate thefunctions of these agencies.

South Africa has also dedicatedpolicies, standards and legislationspecifically designed to enable thestate to tackle corruption throughboth criminal and civil action.

The question then becomes why,with all these resources available totackle corruption, do SouthAfricans perceive the governmentto be failing in this regard.

For example, Afrobarometer has

found that on average a little overhalf (56 percent) of people on theAfrican continent thought thattheir governments were doing apoor job in “their efforts to fightcorruption”. However, South Africaperformed notably worse than theaverage, with two out of three citi-zens (66 percent) believing thegovernment to be performingpoorly in fighting graft.

Importantly, these opinions arenot held because South Africansare regularly confronted with pub-lic sector corruption. In fact, the2013 Afrobarometer report showsthat South Africa was ranked fifthlowest among African countrieswhen it came to citizens havingdirect experiences of paying a bribefor public services.

Only 15 percent of SouthAfricans said they had paid a bribein the previous year compared withan average of 30 percent ofAfricans who had paid a bribe. Theworst performer was Sierra Leone,where 63 percent said they hadpaid a bribe. So why do SouthAfricans have such negative per-ceptions of corruption?

Arguably, it is because the publicare aware that politicians and pub-lic officials divert public fundsaway from service delivery into

their back pockets. In 2011 the former head of the

Special Investigating Unit, WillieHofmeyr, reported before Parlia-ment that between R25 billion andR30bn was lost to the governmentprocurement budget each year dueto this type of fraud. There is evi-dence that the heart of the problemlies in the lack of accountability formaladministration and corruption.

Corruption Watch states thatthis problem starts with the presi-dent – while there are variousefforts by the government to tacklecorruption, “these actions werecountered by thecontinuingimpunity on thepart of those whowere politicallyand financiallypowerful”.

In particular, itwas explainedthat the “Guptawedding sagaand on-goingfiasco surroundingthe president’s private Nkandlaresidence are indicators in the pastyear of impunity in operation”.

Little symbolises the nature ofour public sector corruption chal-lenge better than the scandal ofR215 million of public moneybeing diverted away from the pub-lic good to upgrade Jacob Zuma’sprivate homestead. It is thereforenot surprising that research datasupports the argument that cor-ruption committed by politiciansand government officials is drivingnegative public perceptions of cor-ruption in South Africa.

According to the 2013 Afro-barometer Survey, perceptions ofthe office of the president beingcorrupt more than doubled, from alow of 13 percent in 2002 to

35 percent in 2011. Zuma is not solely responsible

for all corruption in the public sec-tor, but he certainly has stymiedany progress that could have beenmade in this regard. He has repeat-edly appointed people of low ethi-cal standards to key positions incabinet and the criminal justicesystem. As a result, citizens are lesstrusting of their national leaders.

This can partly be explained bythe sad reality that some in the rul-ing elite have jettisoned principlefor political power. In order to trulyhonour Mandela, it is now up tothose men and women of principle

in the ANCto step for-ward andstart takingto task thosewhobesmirch hisproud legacy.

There isno moral jus-tification forthe spending

on Nkandla and the unethicalbehaviour of some of our cabinetministers. Rather than trying tojustify the indefensible or attackingimportant institutions such as thePublic Protector, the ANC nowneeds to be at the forefront of hold-ing its leaders to account for cor-ruption and maladministration.

Failing to do so will not onlyundermine Mandela’s proud lega-cy, but will further damage SouthAfrica’s prospects of solving itsmost pressing problems of poverty,unemployment and inequality.

●Gareth Newham is the headof the Governance, Crime and Jus-tice Division at the Institute forSecurity Studies in Pretoria. Thisarticle first appeared in ISS Today,the ISS’s weekly online newsletter.

A string of surveys reflect a deep disillusionment with government

officials, writes the Institute of Security Studies’ Gareth Newham

President Jacob Zuma's privatehomestead, Nkandla wasupgraded with public money

IT’S MY HOUSE

THE GUPTA SAGA

AND NKANDLA

ARE INDICATORS

IN THE PAST YEAR

OF IMPUNITY IN

OPERATION

Politicians seen as corruptand largely above the law

66%The percentage of South Africans whobelieve the government to beperforming poorly in combating graft

10.8%The decrease in citizens’ confidence innational government since 2012