More than people 43,000 were interviewed in 28 states in sub-Saharan Africa for the People and Corruption: African Survey 2015.
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“But I think, fortunately, South Africans are not yet in that position and it’s gratifying that in the report people believe that by reporting corruption, that’s one way of actually combating it which is all to the good, I might add, ” he said.
It was also found that the majority of Africans say corruption has increased over the past year. In 18 out of 28 countries surveyed a large majority of people said their government was doing badly at fighting corruption.
However, only in countries like Botswana, Swaziland and Lesotho did citizens say they believed the government was trying its best in tackling corruption.
A new survey on corruption levels in sub-Saharan Africa, has found South Africa to be the worst performing country during 2015.
Transparency International said the abuse of power increases poverty around the world because the poorest people are nearly twice as likely to pay bribes as those with more money.
For the first time, the survey shows, people consider business executives as highly corrupt, ranking second to the police, who continue to be seen as the most corrupt segment.
Twenty-eight and 27 per cent respectively of people who had contact with these services paid bribes.
The police is regularly rated as highly corrupt, but the strongly negative assessment of business executives is new compared to previous surveys.
It further indicates that 7% of respondents said they had paid a bribe to government officials to be issued with an identification document, voters card, permit and for utilities, and a health worker, police and judicial official for a favour over the past 12 months.
The report is part of the Global Corruption Barometer initiated by the Transparency International and partnered by Afrobarometer.
“Unless it is stopped, corruption slows development and economic growth while weakening people’s trust in government and the accountability of public institutions”, said José Ugaz.
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Just over half (56%) of those surveyed also felt ordinary people could do something against corruption.
