The latest Corruption Perceptions Index 2020 just released by Transparency International reveals little that we didn’t already know about South Africa.
It’s as corrupt as it was last year.
It ties in 69th position with Romania, Hungary, Jamaica, Bulgaria and Tunisia compared to 70th position last year.
It scores 44 out of 100 where the least corrupt, New Zealand and Denmark, score 88.
Making up the top 10 are New Zealand, Denmark Finland, Switzerland, Singapore, Sweden, Norway, Netherlands, Luxembourg and Germany while the most corrupt are Syria, Somalia and South Sudan.
Botswana is the least corrupt in Southern Africa at 35th followed by Namibia at 57th.
Since 2012, the earliest point of comparison in the current CPI methodology, 26 countries significantly improved their CPI scores, including Ecuador (39), Greece (50), Guyana (41), Myanmar (28) and South Korea (61).
Twenty-two countries significantly decreased their scores, including Bosnia & Herzegovina (35), Guatemala (25), Lebanon (25), Malawi (30), Malta (53) and Poland (56).
Nearly half of countries have been stagnant on the index for almost a decade, indicating stalled government efforts to tackle the root causes of corruption. More than two-thirds score below 50, the report reveals.
Continuing a downward trend, the United States achieves its worst score since 2012, with 67 points. In addition to alleged conflicts of interest and abuse of office at the highest level, in 2020 weak oversight of the US$1-trillion Covid-19 relief package raised serious concerns and marked a retreat from long-standing democratic norms promoting accountable government data.
