Johannesburg, South Africa – Rushing past rows of idling cars at an intersection on Jan Smuts Avenue in Rosebank, a newspaper vendor holds up Friday afternoon’s edition of The Star.

“ANC RUBICON,” the headline shouts. “Party in crisis meeting after Concourt issues a damning Nkandla ruling against President Jacob Zuma.”

The impassive vendor flashes the neatly folded newspaper this way and that, silently imploring drivers to show some interest in the president’s dilemma. But as space opens up ahead, the cars snake through the intersection, carefully dodging the offer.

The highest court in the country found that Zuma, and the ANC-led National Assembly, had acted illegally in the manner in which they disregarded the recommendations of the Public Protector’s report into state-funded upgrades, worth up to $16m, to Zuma’s personal home.

As well as some security features, the funds paid for an amphitheatre and swimming pool, among other modifications to the rural residence in Nkandla.

In its ruling, the Constitutional Court gave the president 105 days to repay the cost of non-security-related upgrades.

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Regional leaders want an ‘African’ tool that will be used to measure corruption objectively, and not the current ‘foreign’ measuring indices which they argue are subjective and are misguiding policymakers and investors.
African leaders have expressed their disapproval of the perception-based measures that have been used since the 1990s, to determine the level of corruption on the continent.

The leaders who were speaking at the just concluded African Development Week in Addis Ababa, agreed they need an ‘African’ means of measuring corruption that is representative of the region.

They argued that the current tools do not represent realities in Africa and are misguiding policymakers and investors.

In their fourth Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) African Governance Review report, the leaders argue that the corruption measurement indices are highly subjective and based on the opinions of elites. They are not suited for making country comparisons and ignore the international aspects of corruption.

“We are concerned that these existing perception-based and mixed indices measures of corruption are flawed,” said Namibian Minister of Finance, Calle Schlettwein, at the launch of the Report titled, Measuring corruption in Africa: The international dimension matters.

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