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Some political parties and civil society organisations have called for the head of President Cyril Ramaphosa in the wake of the country’s downward spiral on the global corruption index.
South Africa scored 41 out of 100, the lowest score since Corruption Watch started tracking the country's public sector corruption index 12 years ago.
With voter registration this weekend and a looming general election, some parties came out guns blazing.
ActionSA leader, Hermann Mashaba, said the country’s anti-corruption efforts have regressed under President Ramaphosa, and that “he urgently needs to be replaced in the elections this year”.
"Despite the President and the ruling party’s promises, Ramaphosa has simply failed to act against corruption and has, instead, found himself complicit in corruption through the Phala Phala Dollars found “under his mattress”, allowing for porous borders and bribes at the higher education department.
"His government spent over R1 billion on the Zondo Commission, but, to date, has failed to prosecute State Capture crimes. This is the legacy voters should judge Ramaphosa and the ruling party on when they head to the polls this year," Mashaba said on Wednesday.
Corruption & the rule of law go hand in hand: when justice can be bought or be politically interfered with, laws stop applying equally to all and serve private interests instead. Check out this analysis: https://t.co/TKKZgPbR3T. #CPI2023
— Corruption Watch (@Corruption_SA) January 31, 2024
The Democratic Alliance said it was now more pertinent than ever that an independent anti-corruption body be established to fight corruption and cadre deployment.
“The DA has asked the Parliament Legal Services to prioritise the finalisation of the DA's private members bill which will create the Anti-Corruption Commission which will investigate and prosecute high-level corruption,” said MP, Glynnis Breytenbach, a former NPA prosecutor.
She said this corruption-fighting body would be a constitutionally protected institution with its own budget and procedures, free from the influence of corrupt officials and Ministers.
"This level of increased corruption within South Africa can be attributed directly to the ANC's systemic infiltration of the public sector and cadre deployment.“In fact, it was Cyril Ramaphosa himself who chaired the cadre deployment committee for years in the lead-up to his presidency," she said.
The non-profit Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse, OUTA, believes the lack of political will to tackle corruption has led to South Africa's downward spiral on the global corruption perception index."The sad thing is we've come out of State Capture and we've seen no change," said spokesperson, Wayne Duvenage on the Moneyweb at Midday podcast.
He said in fact things are getting worse, especially at the local government level, adding that the public's perception of South Africa is that "we are going backward" which he said was sad.
"The new administration came into power on the ticket of an anti-corruption stance and yet nothing changes, it just seems to get worse," he lamented.
