Endemic Corruption in the Post-Apartheid South African Public Sector

Introduction

In South Africa, President Ramphosa’s administration was inaugurated with the promise to uproot corruption and its manifestation. This promise was prompted by the prevalence of corruption practises under former President Zuma and scandals as well as the mis-management of public resources for personal gains by politicians and public servants. The nation has been facing economic difficulties, which have been made worse by the COVID-19 epidemic that include high unemployment and inequality rates (Galea & Abdalla, 2020). The imprisonment of former President Jacob Zuma for corruption served as the catalyst for the wide spread violence witnessed in South Africa. Hunger and poverty drove and it soon spread to other sections of the nation. Mlaba (2021) contends that the terrible economic circumstances that South Africans are currently suffering have been the focal point of the protests, which started when former president Jacob Zuma was arrested and imprisoned for avoiding an investigation into corruption. Meyer (2021) claims that food shortages are imminent and billions of dollars have disappeared as a result of looting and property destruction, which has had a catastrophic effect on the economy. These results show how deeply corruption affects a country's socioeconomic well-being, making it a serious problem that needs immediate attention and action. South African Presidents in post-apartheid were or are in one way or another implicated in corruptible behaviour. Those not directly involved allowed corruption and unethical activities to transpire under their leadership.

Negativity attached to corruption has potential to divert public resources earmarked for service delivery and addressing socio-economic challenges (Mantzaris & Pillay, 2019; Mlambo, Mphuphi & Makgoba, 2023). Corruption within the state has become a cancer difficult to heal with consequences leading to service delivery, trust, health, education deficiencies (Cebekhulu, 2018). Thus, failure by government to address poverty and unemployment has contributed to pollical disorder, social-economic underdevelopment and national riots as witnessed in July 2021 especially in Gauteng and Kwa-Zulu Natal provinces (Mathebula, 2024). For Mngomezulu (2024), the devastating nature of the July 2021 looting led to human fatalities and destruction of properly. These acts were orchestrated by citizens who are the victims of socio-economic challenges. This situation is further driven by the state’s poor institutional capacity to deal with prevailing social and economic injustices in post-Apartheid South Africa. Corruption has the power to undermine the delivery of developmental services and damage the nation’s integrity and reputation as well as their image. Corruption is blamed for depleting national resources and further undermines democratic governance, thus, resulting in the violation human rights, distorting the market, erosion of quality of life and fuelling organised crime (Mantzaris, 2018). In the public sector, corruption and its practices have rendered society and its people as victims without adequate financial and human resources. As argued in this chapter, corruption within the public sector and society at large exacerbates poverty, unemployment, service delivery and inequality as well as undermining South Africa’s potential to be a developmental state. The existing anti-corruption policies and programmes have proven to be weak and without adequate capacity to deal with the scourge of corruption. The chapter made use of selected case studies of corruption at national, provincial and local government level including their implications for a capable and ethical state. Data for this chapter was obtained through secondary sources in the form of books, accredited journals, book chapters and government documents.