Shocking Stats Reveal How Deep Corruption Runs In South Africa

More than a decade after its founding, South Africa's anti-corruption watchdog, Corruption Watch CW, says it has received an avalanche of over 46 000 complaints, painting a grim picture of a country still battling deeply entrenched graft.

In its latest report titled Accountable Together , released on 27 March 2025, the organisation laid bare the state of corruption across sectors and provinces, highlighting an urgent call for collective action.

While only 546 complaints were registered in 2024-far fewer than the 2 110 recorded the previous year-CW explained that the sharp drop wasnt due to cleaner governance. Instead, internal restructuring temporarily halted the organisation's proactive complaint-gathering efforts, as first reported by Business Tech .

Transparency International's 2024 Corruption Perceptions Index CPI confirms CW's findings, with South Africa stuck at a low score of 41 for a second consecutive year, its worst showing since 2012. According to Transparency International, any score below 50 signals serious corruption issues.

The breakdown of complaints received last year reveals that maladministration continues to top the charts at 34, followed by fraud at 21. Employment irregularities, bribery or extortion, and dodgy procurement deals make up the rest, showing a broad pattern of misconduct across public and private sectors.