TheCable

In a report released by Transparency International (TI), a watchdog group, on Tuesday, South Africa came first among countries where corruption is on the increase.

Citizens of Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Liberia and Ghana were also said to have witnessed the highest levels of corruption.

The group said from investigation, an estimated 75 million people in Africa gave bribe last year.

The report said Word Bank data showed that Sub-Saharan Africa has a total population of 973 million, and more than 22 per cent of Africans who came into contact with public service in the past 12 months paid a bribe.

It said that interview with 43,143 people showed that police and courts had the highest corruption rates, adding that in 18 out of the 28 countries surveyed, majority of the respondents said they believe their government was doing badly in tackling the issue of corruption.

The survey said the slow response to the Ebola outbreak in Liberia and Sierra Leone may have been caused by endemic corruption in governmental circles.

Most of the respondents said corruption in their countries was most evident in the police, among business executives, government officials and the courts.

Many Nigerians interviewed equally said that they believe the government was not doing enough to tackle corruption.

However, only in countries like Botswana, Swaziland and Lesotho did citizens say they believed the government was trying its best in tackling corruption.

In Botswana, 54 percent of respondents gave the government a pass mark in the fight against corruption.