2 October 2007
South Africa has been ranked as the second-least corrupt country in Africa and 43rd out of 180 countries worldwide surveyed for Transparency International's (TI) latest Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) - an improvement of eight places from last year's ranking.
The country shares that spot with South Korea and Malaysia with a CPI score of 5.1 - where 10 represents highly clean and 0 represents highly corrupt. Denmark, Finland and New Zealand jointly share the top spot with a score of 9.4.
On the African continent it is only bettered by Botswana in 38th, and followed by Cape Verde (49th worldwide), Mauritius (53rd) and Namibia (57th) to make up the top five.
SA also fares much better than other major emerging world economies such as China, India, Mexico, Brazil (all three in joint 72nd position) and Russia (143rd position).
"Despite some gains, corruption remains an enormous drain on resources sorely needed for education, health and infrastructure," Transparency International chairperson Huguette Labelle said in a statement last week.
"Low scoring countries need to take these results seriously and act now to strengthen accountability in public institutions. But action from top scoring countries is just as important, particularly in cracking down on corrupt activity in the private sector."
The organisation notes, however, that scores are significantly higher in several African countries in the 2007 CPI, including Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa and Swaziland.
"These results reflect the positive progress of anti-corruption efforts in Africa and show that genuine political will and reform can lower perceived levels of corruption," the statement explains.
Other countries with a significant improvement include Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Czech Republic, Dominica, Italy, Romania Suriname and the former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia.
Transparency International pointed out to the concentration of gainers in southeast and Eastern Europe as a testament to the galvanising effect of the European Union accession process on the fight against corruption.
Countries with a significant worsening in perceived levels of corruption in 2007 include Austria, Bahrain, Belize, Bhutan, Jordan, Laos, Macao, Malta, Mauritius, Oman, Papua New Guinea and Thailand.
The index also shows a strong correlation between corruption and poverty - 40% of those countries scoring below three, indicating that corruption is perceived as rampant, are classified by the World Bank as low-income countries.
At the same time, Transparency International notes that deeply troubled states such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Myanmar, Somalia, and Sudan remain at the very bottom of the index.
"Countries torn apart by conflict pay a huge toll in their capacity to govern. With public institutions crippled or non-existent, mercenary individuals help themselves to public resources and corruption thrives," Labelle explained.
SAinfo reporter
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