Corruption Reporting by the Media

The use of the media to trace cases of corruption is one step in developing a profile of corruption. In mid-1997, Transparency International-South Africa commissioned the Community Agency for Social Enquiry (CASE) to produce a 1997 media profile on corruption.1 The profile does not report on actual levels of corruption in South Africa but rather presents an overview of how newspapers focus on incidences of corruption.

The profile is not a barometer or measure of corruption in South Africa as such, since what gets reported in newspapers often amounts to corruption allegations that do not necessarily become corruption cases. Moreover, it is likely that the media might publish articles for particular political reasons, or simply to feed into a sort of sensationalism that attracts readers’ attention. With these caveats in mind, newspaper coverage on corruption is analysed across sectors and levels of society, as well as in terms of allegations.



Figure 1 Breakdown of corruption cases by sector

Sectoral corruption

When the 24 different newspaper sources are analysed in tandem, slightly more than half of all media coverage on corruption targets the public sector as compared to 16% which focuses on the private sector. Additionally, 15% of the coverage involves corruption affecting the public and private sectors combined, while only 4% of the corruption newspaper coverage targets civil society (see Figure 9). These figures tend to reinforce the general sense in South African society that the public sector houses most of the corruption nation-wide. While it might be accurate, this interpretation is misleading for four reasons. First, many of the incidents classified in newspapers as being about corruption in the public sector often point to a lack of administrative skills among public servants than to corruption per se. Second, it is plausible that many cases involving corruption in the private sector and civil society do not make for attractive news stories and hence do not get reported. Third, compared to corruption in the public sector, cases involving corruption in the private sector and civil society tend to be more hidden. Fourth, since the term corruption invites a plethora of interpretations, it is possible that many incidents do not get categorised as representing corruption as such by the media.

Among all the cases involving public sector corruption, government departments were the most-mentioned entities, followed by public servants and government agencies. The majority of cases on corruption in the private sector involved business entities and professionals. Civil society corruption cases involved mostly political parties, non-governmental organisations, community-based organisations and sports organisations.

Out of the newspapers reviewed, only the Star and Sunday Times reported fewer corruption cases linked to the public sector than the overall average, and more cases implicating the private sector. In contrast, the Citizen, Pretoria News and Volksblad were substantially above average in linking their reported corruption cases to the public sector. None of the corruption cases reported by Volksblad were linked to the private sector or civil society. This simple breakdown of newspapers shows that political agendas may influence how corruption is reported.

Where corruption occurs

As seen in Figure 2, the largest proportion (43%) of reported cases involved corruption at the national level, followed by one third of all cases involving corruption at a provincial level. Cases of corruption at local level accounted for 21% of all newspaper reports. Almost two thirds of all cases of reported provincial corruption involved the public sector, compared to 4% which addressed private sector corruption and 1% corruption within civil society.



Figure 2 Breakdown of reported corruption cases

If one were to take the figures at face value, it would seem that Mpumalanga and Gauteng are among the most corrupt provinces since if combined, they account for 50% of the total provincial corruption reported. However, Mpumalanga faced two incidents of corruption extensively covered by several newspapers (the drivers’ licence scandal involving the National Assembly Speaker and the Motheo Construction Housing scandal involving the Minister of Housing).

Corruption allegations

The most reported corruption allegations were fraud, mismanagement, and a combination of the two. In broad terms, mismanagement tended to be concentrated in the public sector and at a provincial level, while fraud affected mostly the private sector, civil society, and cases involving a combination of private and public sectors, all at national level.

Anti-corruption action

In 84% of the reported corruption cases, some form of anti-corruption action was taken. Approximately one third of the anti-corruption action (34%) took place at national level, 30% at provincial level, and 18% at local level. In the majority of the corruption cases reported (87%), anti-corruption action meant the formation of commissions of inquiry to investigate corruption allegations. Only in 5% of the reported corruption cases was any restructuring involved. This is quite alarming since not enough meaningful structural changes are taking place to institutionalise good governance.

Florencia Belvedere,
Community Action for Social Enquiry