South Africa’s police officers are among the most corrupt state workers in the country, according to a report released on Tuesday.
Nearly 2,000 people took the step of blowing the whistle on corruption during the first half of the year compared to the same period last year, the report said.
The report, compiled by the NGO Corruption Watch, said that 55 percent of complaints against the country’s law enforcers were made after the declaration of the coronavirus pandemic lockdown in March.
The police officers’ malpractices included shielding each other from public complaints of improper conduct reported against them at police stations, Corruption Watch Researcher Melusi Ncala said.
“The reports that we received provided a snapshot of the graft that has manifested in every sphere of government, with the complicity of the private sector, and encompassing multiple sectors in our society,” Ncala said.
He added: “The destruction wrought by corruption is silent but deadly. It is most often the poorest in society who are brutalised by the actions of these corrupt individuals.”
Maladministration, the deliberate delaying of/or disregard for legal and official government processes accounted for 19 percent of all reports, the report said.
According to the report, municipal offices, schools and traffic and licensing centres each accounted for five percent of the reports, and the health sector came in at four percent.
NM/jn/APA