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CGF ARTICLES, OPINIONS & EDITORIALS

Fighting corruption to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGS) (2012-03-13)

Crime experts, economists and NGOs were recently not surprised that an estimated R30 billion was being lost annually by South African taxpayers due to graft, incompetence and negligence in the public service.

Corruption is fast becoming pervasive throughout South Africa, and current cases such as the re-opened South African Arms Deal -- estimated at a value of US$4.8 billion alone -- do not inspire any confidence to suggest that South Africa is improving its reputation in this area, in fact quite the contrary.

To illustrate this further, research by TFAC (The Fight Against Corruption), found that 600 000 new low cost houses, 60 hospitals with a 280 bed capacity each, 3 000 rural clinics and 915 new schools could be built with the R30 billion estimated to have been misappropriated from state coffers. Moreover, TFAC asserts that one cannot -- in good conscience -- say that South Africa has the political will to fight corruption with its current systems, procedures and “arrangements/agreements” in place.

Research from Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index indicates that South Africa has fallen from a respectable 34th place in world rankings in 2000, to 64th place in 2011. Allied to this sharp fall, most analysts agree that our Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is now also under severe pressure.  This is largely due to our international investors raising South Africa’s risk profiles due to the country’s conflicting messages and the half-hearted attempts to rein in the ANC Youth League’s nationalisation ‘debate’.  According to the UN Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad), South Africa lost 70% of its FDI from $5.4bn in 2009 to a mere $1.6bn in 2010.  Whilst Angola appears to be the better choice of FDI destination on the African continent -- having earned top spot in 2009 and 2010 -- South Africa has only been rated 8th choice of FDI destination over the same period.

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