Governance and Corruption in South Africa's Public Sector: The Road Ahead

The development of any country hinges significantly on the availability of good governance and a well-functioning public sector. In the post-apartheid era, South Africa had to ensure that the public sector responded to the needs of the people through effective and efficient service delivery. However, immediately after apartheid, the public sector was engulfed by numerous governance and corruption-related issues, which have greatly discredited the public sector in the eyes of the public. This paper examines the governance and corruption dilemma in South Africa's public sector. It employs a narrative literature review and conceptualizes the origin and concept of good governance to answer the underlying question of this paper. The paper found that South Africa is suffering from years of corruption which has seen billions of taxpayers' money wasted through irregular expenditure in the public sector. The lack of transparency and accountability within the governance process in the public sector has consolidated corruption and impunity. Consequently, the implication is that the government will struggle to address the triple bottom issues of poverty, inequality and unemployment. In the future, this will affect South Africa's quest for inclusive socioeconomic development unless urgent policy interventions are implemented to address these challenges

Corruption and Its Implications for Development and Good Governance: A Perspective from Post-Colonial Africa

Abstract: One of the many impediments to a specific region, country and/or continents political, social and economic growth prospects is corruption, the aim of this paper is to unearth the drivers and consequences of corruption in post-colonial Africa. Corruption is a global phenomenon; however when observing global corruption statistics and/or trends, it seems to be more prominent in underdeveloped continents such as Africa. Corruption in Africa is purely driven by low levels of economic growth, bad governance structures weak constitutions political instability, high levels of poverty coupled with high and ever-increasing levels of unemployment. We argue that post the colonial era, there has been a rise of corruption activities within the continent where individuals including some African heads of states have looted the continent of its resources meant for the general populace. In this sense, corruption takes resources meant for the poor, limits foreign direct investments (FDI) and has severe effects on a continent that is already the least developed in the world