Corruption in South Africa

A can of worms

As probes into corruption may widen, a lot of notable heads could—or should—roll

See article

Readers' comments



Y'know, it seems like there are some people out there who are literally spending their lives waiting to crank up the doom-and-gloom organ about South Africa.
Here's a newsflash, if you're not white and don't have a chip on your shoulder (i.e more than 90% of the country's population) things are looking a helluva lot better than they did 10 or 20 years ago.
Here's another newsflash, that supposed graft-free white apartheid era government that you insist looking back on with fondness was not. Reporting on corruption was suppressed back then.
Although he could have reacted quicker, at least Zuma is doing something about it publically.


This country is up to its neck in corruption, I don't understand how so many people can make its own people their playground. The Police chiefs especially, "protect and serve" changes to " Pollute and Steal".



Grow a brain and then find out how many billions of Rands per week the apartheid government spent on the wars in Angola and SWA/Namibia. A good friend of mine flew in a military transport with the, then, minister of defence and a few tons of ivory. They had to pay for the wars somehow, I guess.


Zuma needs to be a leader and get rid of this corruption. It has been too relaxed in their country about all of this and they are paying the price of it by losing millions of dollars to fraud and corruption. If they want their economy to be back on track they need to stop these problems and quick.

Daniel Miller

With the world economy struggling, it is more important than ever to crack down swiftly and heavily on corruption. If corruption continues, its only a matter of time before South African citizens become disenfranchised and their government becomes less and less democratic. This could lead to the financial destabilization of their economy which would causes further problems in world markets. If Mr. Zuma wants to prevent this from happening he must make examples of corrupt leaders to show that it will not be tolerated.


Its a shame to see South Africa in such situation, especially after such rapid climbing up the ranks in its position in the world. If the corruption is as bad as is claimed, this can be a major speed bump in South Africa's climb to becoming a world power. It can only be hoped that other African nations don't follow South Africa's footsteps down a road of corruption.


It's beginning to sound like a broken record, any report & associated comments on South Africa has the same lingering backdrop to show that post racial dominance like any other African country, RSA as we call it here in Southern Africa, is going backward. I'll give you a simple example. Remember the FIFA World Cup, The Economist and other media publications predicted a disaster World Cup. During my travel, I remember meeting a number of Europeans who argued vehemently that the World Cup would be a disaster. Some even said, another country is on standby to host the event. When asked on what basis they said this.. a lot of them said their friends & relatives who told them South Africa was unsafe, corruption so rife that it would make it impossible to host the cup...I guess we all know how sucessful the World Cup was. I guess the point I'm trying to make is that half the time what is reported on South Africa is based on the lingering backdrop that I mentioned above...this is because a lot of journalist get their South African stories from one side, the side that brutalised the majority of South Africans(and I add other Southern Africans like Namibians, Angolans & Mozambiqueansfor over a century thru a system that made one group(and a minority for that matter) so rich that today they have major influence on what we read about South Africa...

I have read so many stories & comments about South Africa being a disaster waiting to happen,....or South Africa heading Zimbabwe's way. The question is if Helen Zille not Zuma was president of South Africa, would we get the same comments or pessimism from a certain section of the population. Or if Botha were alive & ruling or De Klerk were president, I guess the pessimism would not be fact I wish ANC could at one point appoint a South African who is a descendent of a European...i guess the pre-election reporting especially from the like of BBC, CNN, etc would be different...and optimism among South Africans of Euro orgin may change

The Zimbabwe that South Africans claim to know so well(when they dont) was perhaps the first country with a sizeable settler colonial citizens to extend an olive branch to the former brutalizers and oppressors. Mandela and South Africa merely followed what Rhodies, Smith and Mugabe had done, reconciliation of all sections of the country in fact reconciliation worked so well from 1980 to about 2000 when Mugabe changed course and became a disaster...which we havent seen in RSA fact Mugabe reached out to European Zimbabweans more than to his fellow African Ndebele/Matabele people that were did Euro Zimbos react to this hand of reconciliation???....Philip Barclay who spent time in Zimbabwe has huge lessons for South Africans of European origin...yet this lesson is not even heeded, u only need to read comments by European South Afriacns on their major online papers like or

The Fritz

I'd be pretty upset if I were a South African right now...a country that has recently been on the rise to power and success, South Africa could very easily turn that around, even if Zuma isn't directly involved, it's going to reflect poorly on him and the entire government really. Every country deals with corruption in the government, but I think South Africa is going a little overboard here.


No matter how you look at it, scandals can really have a strong impact on a government and how it is viewed. The thought of a struggling government is bad, but corruption of professionals within the government can be even worse. South Africa's scandal is not a small one, many government officials are involved and accused of fraud and other irregularities. Issues like these can take time to repair, thus stalling further improvements of the country.


As Occupy Wall Street rages on, it looks like corruption and greed have been uncovered in yet another country. Though it is no surprise after prior allegations of Zuma, this comes as worsening news with multiple scandals being unveiled internationally. Will anything actually be done? While that remains to be seen, some skepticism must be held based upon former results.


It is unfortunate that due to the capture of Qaddafi, this article was replaced in many copies of the economist and so will not be read by as many people as it should be. I'm glad for someone emailing this to me as otherwise (even though I am a long time subscriber) I would have missed it.


Corruption is never a good thing.

But worse then are the sanctimonious lot on this blog.

Two cases to point out
1.. In England, some 15 years ago one o the directors of the B.O.England happened to embezzle a lot of public money.
When this was found out, The Governor of the B.O.E took the PM to one side and reminded him that 'He is one of us'

2.. Berlasconi . A byword for the worst bit of White man's civilisation.

3.. Hendrik Verwood -What is worse - the evil of corruption or thye evil of apartheid .

4..Or just good old Hitler - Has the world ever known evil worse then this - take your pick - The evil of Hitler/Verwood/Vorster
Or a new nation , still nation building , still trying to find it's own values and it will eventually get there.

Nothing will ever be as corrupt as when The Armaments/oil/Pharmaceutical Industries funding George Bush's election so that he would start 2 wars one of which had to be for oil, and then stop any type of Health Care due to Pharmaceutical funding.

Time for some you to go and get back under that rock again.


jlmotacampos Oct 24th 2011 3:38 GMT

With varied degrees, the outcome was the second hypothesis, the gradual one. The miracle was that SA didn’t have a Zimbabwe moment. There is no doubt in my mind that in a century there won’t be any whites in SA worth of talking of.

Hey man :

Was there ever a white man in SA worth talking about?


@Marty92 - I think you are forgetting about Egypt too, buddy. South Africa has only really become recognized as an up and coming int'l power in the past 20 or 30 years now, whereas Egypt has been a major player for neigh on a century. These investigations of corruption shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. Regardless of being an African nation or not, South Africa is still a new nation in terms of its constitution and political climate. Not everyone can be Mandela.


Government corruption is a very unfortunate issue which takes place on at least small scale all over the world. South African people and government are in a worse situation than many in the rest of the world and most definitely need to find a way to correct this issue. Hopefully they can find a way to severely cut down this issue of corruption.


Jacob Zuma's weak leadership has a negative effect on South America. Millions of dollars are being lost as a result of the corruption among several political leaders such as Cele and Shiceka. South America has the potential to become a top economy, but in order for this to happen Zuma needs to either step down or take a more aggressive approach to the situation.


Oh God, am I going to be politically incorrect!
This was pre-ordained from the day of majority rule. We all thought that there would be three possibilities in South Africa: a sudden stop to the rule of law, massive nationalizations like in Zimbabwe, the firing of tens of thousands of non-black-coloured civil servants, including police and military, and the exodus «en masse» of all white types holding a passport from a European country or a visa to the US, Canada or Australia; second possibility would be the same but not sudden, but over time, involving positive discrimination, gradual substitution in responsibility jobs, «empowerment» of root communities through the financing with public funds of lots of public works and loans to local associations, all leading to corruption that would gradually go up the ladder until it reached the top, pushing whities aside at first and out at last; than, there was also the miracle possibility, one that we wanted to believe in with Mandela.
With varied degrees, the outcome was the second hypothesis, the gradual one. The miracle was that SA didn’t have a Zimbabwe moment. There is no doubt in my mind that in a century there won’t be any whites in SA worth of talking of. They all will be gone from a country that will be as corrupt and backward as any other African Country, only later.
I do not want to be judgemental: it was pre-ordained, in the genes of it, written in the stars. Do you morally judge a tsunami?

guest-iwswisi in reply to JLMC

I agree with you completely. It was only a matter of time before South Africa fell apart at the seams. Resentment, laziness, corruption, a sense of entitlement, desire for material wealth but no willingness to work for it, nepotism, and a hunger for power underpin the country's governance structures now. And we only know the tip of the iceberg. But government officials aren't the worst scourge in SA (although Julius Malema is 'Hitleresque' and 'Stalinesque'). The multi-millionaire black elite - who earned their wealth (and continue to do so) through tender irregularities, nepostism, cronysim, bribary and general corruption of government - are bleeding our country dry. When the "looted" funds are safe in overseas bank accounts and there is nothing left to rob, they will leave and live abroad on their stolen spoils while the majority (who remain uneducated, unhoused and jobless) are left to their own devices and Africa cynics are again proved correct that this continent is indeed a basket case. Well done, ANC - you've continued to disempower your people so you can enrich yourselves and the world has watched you get away with it, thanks to political correctness.


This is yet another case of a corrupt government in the world today. South Africa was moving in the right direction with their economy and now this happens. The government needs to stop this overpayment and corruption as soon as possible. Their are too many under the table deals with money being made in the country right now. If they want to get their economy back on track, they need to eliminate these problems.


Of all the negative arifacts that could affect the economy, the corruption of high public officials is at the top of the list. While the country is attemting to progress in the economy, it is those in charge that stop the expansion of the country. But looking politically, if the public officials are those who should be setting the example, what is there to stop the rest of the country from engaging in illegal activity or fighting the government themelves due to the lack of trust. Someone needs to intervene and control the corruption and lander of money for personal reasons rather than the national.


Latest blog posts - All times are GMT
Technology and fashion: Storming the maisons
Schumpeter 1 hrs 47 mins ago
Financial literacy: Back to basics
Free exchange 1 hrs 31 mins ago
The Economist explains: How can a goalkeeper save a penalty?
The Economist explains July 10th, 21:01
Guns and consequences: What are the costs of gun ownership?
Democracy in America July 10th, 20:31


Products and events



