SA's corruption score has improved slightly, going from 43rd place in 2018 to 44th in this year.
According to Transparency International’s 2019 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), South Africa has improved slightly in its corruption score to 44 in 2019 from 43 in 2018. This means that the country places 70th in the world out of 180 nations that are part of the CPI.
The CPI ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption using a scale of zero, indicated highly corrupt countries, to 100, indicating very clean countries.
According to the report, more than two-thirds of countries score below 50, with an average score of 43. This means that these countries are stagnating or going backwards in their anti-corruption efforts.
The CPI also states that since 2012, only 22 countries have significantly improved their scores, including Estonia, Greece and Guyana. 21 countries’ scores have significantly declined, including Australia, Canada and Nicaragua.
These four countries scored lower than last year:
- Canada scored four less
- France scored three less
- UK scored three less
- US scored two less
The CPI also showed that Germany and Japan remained stagnant, while Italy improved by one point.
