Strengthening South African anti-corruption institutions to safeguarding democracy : self serving governance system

Abstract

Democracy is central to the South African development agenda, which, finds its cornerstone within the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996. The new democratic dispensation is rooted in the democratic principle such as the enhancement of the rule of the people, free and fair election, and the rule of law. However, since the attainment of democracy in 1994, South Africa traversed through multiple challenges such as corruption, service delivery backlog, increasing poverty and unemployment, and in recent years, state capture. South Africa has put in place multiple anti-corruption institutions to safeguard democracy through the enforcing the rule of law. South African government used multiple legislations to strengthen these anticorruption institutions. Although South Africa has created these anti-corruption institutions, corruption and poor governance and the lack of rule of the people continue to deepen, and which consequently lead to faltering democracy. The paper argues that weak political leadership and poorly governed anti-corruption institutions have over the years, yielded increasing corruption which continues to threaten the deepening democracy in South Africa. The theory of planned behaviour posits that human behaviour is constructed through interaction and culture which influences and shapes people to commit any unethical acts such as corruption, bribery, and money laundering. Therefore, the act of corruption is not an accident, but a planned behaviour of an individual to act unethically. The paper will highlight on some of the reports from the anti-corruption institutions like SAPS, Public Protector and IPID focusing on their independence, corruption reports and their capacity to discharge their constitutional mandate in an attempt to safeguard democracy by enforcing the rule of law.