SA's anti-corruption needle stalled

The release of the 2026 Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) confirms a sobering reality: South Africa's anti-corruption needle is not just stuck; it is being held back within a global context of democratic backsliding.

- Karam Jeet Singh

Crystal clear: The Zondo Commission, chaired by the former Chief Justice Raymond Zondo - seen here with President Cyril Ramaphosa during the handover of its report - was unequivocal in identifying public procurement as the primary artery through which State Capture flowed.

(Photo: GCIS)

With a score of 41, the country has remained unchanged for three years, lingering below the global average of 42.Yet to view this purely as a domestic failure is to ignore the widening enforcement and accountability gap across the globe. In 2026, it is not that South Africa is standing still. It is that the illicit economy, organised crime and transnational kleptocracy are evolving at a pace that traditional, fragmented governance struggles to match.

South Africa is moving - state capture prosecutions are underway and the illicit economy is being “disrupted” - but its progress is mediated by institutional sluggishness, variable political will and a global retreat from an integrity consensus on issues such as bribery of public officials.

While South Africa struggles to commit to a definitive institutional architecture to combat corruption, fails to fix public procurement and continues to allow whistleblowers to face the worst forms of retribution, the existential challenge that corruption poses to a thriving democracy remains unchallenged. South Africa's current struggle occurs within an unprecedented global context of democratic backsliding and a retreat from the fight against kleptocracy. The 2026 CPI report identifies once-stable pillars of integrity, specifically the United States (64) and the United Kingdom (70), as falling to historic lows.

The shift in the United States is particularly jarring. Recent executive actions recalibrating enforcement “priorities” have announced a monumental retreat from traditional anti-bribery enforcement in favour of “strategic commercial advantages.”