The ideology and politics of anti-corruption : reframing the debate

Abstract

This study is based on anti-corruption discourse in South Africa and the legalistic way in which it is dominantly perceived. A qualitative methodology has been adopted to interrogate and problematize this legalistic perspective for being instrumental to the maintenance of corruption in South Africa. The study contends that the Western ideological and cultural background of South Africa’s legal system contributes to the continued subjugation of the indigenous African population. The researcher argues that the dominant perspective of anti-corruption discourse has misdiagnosed the problem, thereby making the discourse unprogressive and stagnant. Legalism focuses on the corrupt behaviour of individuals and fails to understand corruption as an institutional problem owing its roots to South Africa’s history of colonialism and apartheid. A political-ideological perspective is then suggested as an alternative approach that can be used to shift the dominant perception of corruption into one that is more historically responsive. This perspective understands that corruption in South Africa is a system of governance that was established during the colonial order, one that is still operative in South Africa today. It sees corrupt individual activities as simply a by-product of a problematic system and therefore, not the root cause of the problem. In conclusion, the researcher contends that reframing the current anti-corruption discourse into one that centres South Africa’s history and politics enables us to address the problem at its roots.