South Africa has dropped five places from 2011 on the latest Transparency International Corruption Perception index (CPI) published yesterday.
The country is now 69th out of 187 countries.
The CPI ranks countries in order of those with the least perceived corruption in the public sector, to those with the most and considers issues such as bribery, abuse of public resources, secretive decision-making, anti-corruption laws and conflicts of interest. South Africa tied with Brazil and Macedonia, on a score of 43.
Botswana was ranked 30th and perceived as the African country with the least corrupt public sector.
Denmark, Finland and New Zealand were perceived to have the least corrupt public sectors. Somalia, North Korea and Afghanistan were perceived to have the most corrupt public sectors.
Dion George, the DA spokesman on the standing committee on public accounts, said the backslide was “hardly surprising, given that the president himself had 783 charges of corruption against him, which were withdrawn”. – Asha Speckman and Sapa