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Overcoming The Corruption Conundrum in Africa A Socio Legal Perspective 1St Edition Anzanilufuno Munyai Online Ebook Texxtbook Full Chapter PDF
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Overcoming The Corruption Conundrum in Africa A Socio Legal Perspective 1St Edition Anzanilufuno Munyai Online Ebook Texxtbook Full Chapter PDF
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Overcoming
the Corruption
Conundrum
in Africa
Overcoming
the Corruption
Conundrum
in Africa:
A Socio-legal Perspective
By
Anzanilufuno Munyai
Overcoming the Corruption Conundrum in Africa:
A Socio-legal Perspective
By Anzanilufuno Munyai
All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without
the prior permission of the copyright owner.
Schabir Shaik and Others v The State 2007 (1) SA 240 (SCA).
Schabir Shaik and Others v The State 2008 (2) SA 208 (CC).
Angola
Law No.3/ 96 on High Authority against Corruption.
Botswana
Corruption and Economic Crime Act 13 of 1994 (as amended).
Penal Code No.2 of 1964 (Cap 08: 01).
Proceeds of Serious Crime Act (Cap 08:03) (as amended).
Cameroon
Law No.2006/001 of 25 April 2006 Relating to the Declaration of Assets
and Property.
Ghana
Anti-Money Laundering Act 749 of 2008.
Public Property Protection Act 1977 (SMCD 140).
Overcoming the Corruption Conundrum in Africa xv
Kenya
Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Act 3 of 2003.
Electoral Offences Act.
Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission Act 22 of 2011.
Penal Code (Cap 63) 1970.
Proceeds of Crime and Anti-Money Laundering Act 9 of 2009.
Malawi
Public Audit Act 6 of 2003.
Mauritius
Prevention of Corruption Act 5 of 2002.
Namibia
Anti-Corruption Act 8 of 2003.
Electoral Act.
Nigeria
Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria Act 24 of 1999.
Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Act 5 of 2000.
Rwanda
Constitution of the Republic of Rwanda and its Amendments of 2
December 2003 and of 8 December 2005.
South Africa
Constitution of the Republic of South Africa Act 108 of 1996.
Electoral Act.
Switzerland
Federal Act on the Freezing and the Restitution of Illicit Assets held by
Foreign Politically Exposed Persons (Foreign Illicit Assets (FIAA) Act
of 18 December 2015).
Tunisia
Constitution of Tunisia 2014.
Uganda
Code of Conduct and Ethics for Uganda Public Service 2005.
PREFACE
“Third World is a state of the mind and until we change our attitude as
Africans, if there is a fourth, fifth and even sixth world, we will be in it.”
[sic.]
í Patrick Loch Otieno Lumumba
INTRODUCTION
Studies by legal and social scientists (who have written on the subject)
have attempted to deconstruct the term “corruption”. Prior to examining
these studies, the definition of corruption as suggested by two dictionaries
of English is provided. The Oxford English Dictionary defines corruption
as a “dishonest or fraudulent conduct by those in power, typically involving
bribery”.2 This is quite a restrictive definition as it defines corruption within
the context of those in power. The Merriam Webster Dictionary provides a
much broader definition of corruption. The term is seen or understood as
“dishonest or illegal behaviour, especially by powerful people (such as
government or police officials)”.3 This definition is situated within the
broader term but with great emphasis on those in power.
These two definitions provide a starting point for the delineation of what
corruption is (at least, from the perspectives of these definitions). As
defined, corruption involves an act. The act could take different forms:
promises, gestures, gifts, rewards, prizes, misappropriation, influence, or
fraud. However, the act itself does not suffice to make it corruption (when
seen from a legal perspective). It is the intent underlying the act that would
qualify it as corruption. In this regard, such an act must be dishonest,
fraudulent, illegal or even unethical for it to meet the requirements of a
corrupt act. This analysis assumes that corruption, as defined above, is not
limited to the public sphere; it may take place within the private sphere,
even though prosecution of such cases depends on a variety of factors.
Beyond these definitions, scholars and practitioners have propounded
numerous definitions on what they perceive to be corruption. Some scholars
argue that there is no universal definition of corruption; some even say that
a universal definition is probably impossible.4 Other scholars, however,
provide a much more general and broader definition of what corruption is
by pointing out that it is a deeply rooted phenomenon that consists of a wide
variety of actions and/or behaviours that refer to a dynamic process and its
outcome.5 On the contrary, other scholars define corruption as the sale of
government sources by government officials for private gains. 6 However,
2 Sharon Hayes, Criminal Justice Ethics: Cultivating the Moral Imagination (UK,
Oxon: Routledge, 2015), 136.
3 http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/corruption accessed May 12, 2019.
4 Mark Jorgensen Farrales, “What is Corruption? A History of Corruption Studies
(New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2012), 1112; Andrei Shleifer and Robert
W. Vishny, The Grabbing Hand: Government Pathologies and their Cures
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2002), 91; Omer Gokcekus and Kevin
Bengyak, Peculiar Dynamics of Corruption: Religion, Gender, EU Membership,
and Others (Singapore: World Scientific, 2014), 11; Geoffrey M. Hodgson, From
Pleasure Machines to Moral Communities: An Evolutionary Economics without
Homo economics (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012), 154; Alberto Ades
and Rafael Di Tella, “The New Economics of Corruption: A Survey and Some New
Results” in Combating Corruption in Latin America, ed. Joseph S. Tulchin and
Ralph H. Espach, (Washington: Woodrow Wilson Centre Press, 2000), 38.
7 See Farrales, What is corruption.
Introduction 5
2015), 25.
10 Vargas-Hernández, “The Multiple Faces of Corruption: Typology, Forms and
Levels”, 132.
11 Vargas-Hernández, “The Multiple Faces of Corruption: Typology, Forms and
Levels”, 133.
12 Vargas-Hernández, “The Multiple Faces of Corruption: Typology, Forms and
Levels”, 132.
13 Stuart H. Deming, The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the New International
International Business: The Challenge of Cultural and Legal Diversity, ed. Sharon
Eicher, (Farnham: Gower Publishing Ltd, 2012), 5.
15 Susan Rose-Ackerman, Corruption and Government: Causes, Consequences, and
level of trust society has in its leaders and, most importantly, widens
different levels of inequality.16
Petty corruption may be understood as “bribes and other direct and
illegal perks offered to street-level bureaucrats”.17 Petty corruption may also
be described as a street-level form of corruption involving an individual
interacting with the state. Technically speaking, petty corruption involves
middle- or low-level public officials who are often grossly underpaid and
interact directly with the public.18 The obvious effect of this form of
corruption is that it generally harms poor members of society when they
interact with public officials to request public services.19
There are two distinct scholarly positions regarding the impact of
corruption. On the one hand, some scholars condemn corruption, arguing
that it has negative effects on governments, economies and service delivery,
while on the other hand, other scholars contend that corruption has positive
effects. Those belonging to the latter school of thought argue that corruption
may aid both foreign and domestic entrepreneurs and investors, and could
be helpful in gaining some sort of control over policy progress and
government activities in the economy which, in turn, would significantly
reduce the negative effects of existing political uncertainties on investments
and productive activities.20 China, with its unparalleled growth, is used as
an example. Combining China’s growth with its high levels of corruption,
it could be argued that “China’s corruption may be more developmental
than destructive”.21 Disciples of this school of thought consider corruption
as a lubricant to the wheels of development, an ideology debunked in this
book.
Other schools of thought hold a different view. These scholars believe
that corruption has a negative impact on both direct domestic and foreign
Dante B. Canlas, Muhammad Ehsan Khan, and Juzhong Zhuang, ed. Diagnosing the
Philippine Economy: Toward Inclusive Growth (London: Anthem Press, 2011), 314.
16 Paul Heywood, Routledge Handbook of Political Corruption (UK, London:
Can We Do Better for Capacity Development (UK, London: Routledge, 2003), 115.
19 Amitava Mukherjee, Food Security in Asia (New Delhi: SAGE Publications India,
2012), 79.
20 John Mukum Mbaku, Corruption in Africa: Causes, Consequences, and Cleanups
Peaceful Rise”, in China’s “Peaceful Rise” in the 21st Century, ed. Sujian Guo,
(England: Ashgate Publishing Ltd, 2006), 65.
Introduction 7
22 Aminur Rahman, Gregory Kisunko, and Kapil Kapoor, Estimating the effects of
for the Contemporary Society (Delhi: Hope India Publications, 2007), 109.
24 Chamola, Kautilya Arthshastra and the Science of Management, 109.
25 Kim SOO-Am, Kook-Shin Kim, and Min Hong, Relations between Corruption
and Human Rights in North Korea (South Korea: Korea Institute for National
Unification, 2013), 14.
26 Edgardo Buscaglia, Judicial Corruption in Developing Countries: Its Causes and
29 Elie Virgile Chrysostome and Rick Molz, ed. Building Businesses in Emerging
and Developing Countries: Challenges and Opportunities (UK, London: Routledge,
2014), 53; and “Corruption Perception Index 2018”, Transparency International,
accessed June 13, 2019,
https://www.transparency.org/files/content/pages/2018_CPI_Executive_Summary.
pdf.
30 You Jong-sung and Sanjeev Khagram, “A Comparative Study of Inequality and
Corruption” American Sociological Review 70, no. 1 (2005), 136, 139 and 140.
Introduction 9
As will be seen in this book, the first major challenge regarding the
eradication of corruption in Africa is tied to the difficulty in defining
corruption. In this context, defining corruption would mean developing and
postulating a watertight definition that captures or embraces all the various
acts of corruption. If this could be done, penalising corruption would
probably be easier. However, it is easier to explain corruption than to define
it. This observation recognises the fact that different African countries have
different perspectives on what corruption is.31 In addition, they give it
different labels within their formal and informal communications. The
allocation of labels to different acts of corruption within various
communities in Africa speaks to how deeply entrenched it is within the
social fabric; its crucial place in formal and informal transactions; and, more
importantly, how challenging it could be when it comes to combating it at
all levels. The difficulty in developing a watertight definition of what
corruption is, i.e. the encapsulation of all its essential ingredients, poses a
major challenge.
Second, the inability to detect corrupt practices committed by high-level
civil servants and bringing them to justice contributes to Africa’s inability
to combat corruption. Many individuals have engaged in acts of corruption,
whether willingly, knowingly, ignorantly or innocently. However, with
regard to corruption perpetrated by senior state officials, it hardly goes
unnoticed. This is so because of the extent to which it is perpetrated; the
nature of the loss caused; and the repetitiveness of the acts. Owing to the
unwillingness of law enforcement officials to identify, investigate and bring
such individuals to justice, corruption becomes a “political culture”
exclusive to specific politicians or state actors. National legislation that is
poorly drafted helps compound the situation as immunity is granted to such
individuals. They are immersed in impunity as they bleed their national
economies, thus depriving their countries of the resources they need for
development. When such individuals permeate the legal system untouched,
then it becomes necessary to solicit the assistance of foreign governments
and financial institutions to assist in curbing corruption. This argument finds
plenty of credence in the fact that misappropriated funds are deposited into
foreign bank accounts. At times, assets are acquired in foreign territories,
making them out of the reach of domestic law.
Third, the greed of state leadership plays a role in the eradication of
corruption in Africa. Bearing in mind how many African legal systems are
faced with frail laws and institutions, often, public officials go unpunished
and stolen valuables are untraceable, resulting in the retrogression of the
31 Matthew Burrows, The Future, Declassified: Megatrends That Will Undo the
World Unless We Take Action (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), 22.
10 Chapter One
state and gross human rights violations. Weighed down by speculations that
Africans are corrupt by their very nature, the presumption is that Africa is
clouded with bad governance as a result of poor and irresponsible
leadership. A number of African countries have been, or are, under
dictatorship.32 Even though some countries characterise their systems as
democratic, they usually find themselves relapsing into autocracy for the
simple reason that their democracies are not founded on the right normative
and institutional framework. Such countries often experience high levels of
corruption, particularly because of the disinterest by those in power to take
action in the fight against corruption. Instead, they are motivated by the
realisation that the existence of strong anti-corruption laws and institutions
would limit and/or eventually eliminate their illegal opportunities. Apart
from dictatorships, countries that were once colonised and have
subsequently gained independence from colonial rulers tend to have high
corruption levels. The new leadership, which vowed to transform the nation,
often finds itself realising the immense power and the influence it has, and
subsequently, refuses to abdicate political leadership by engaging in
fraudulent acts all geared towards obtaining, retaining and consolidating
political leadership. Some African leaders have gone on record for
engineering constitutional amendments aimed at extending their mandate
and terms of office. When such individuals perpetuate such kinds of corrupt
practices, they dilute a country’s efforts towards combating corruption.
They become the point of reference to low-level corrupt officials who argue
like the legendary Poor Parson in Chaucer’s General Prologue to the
Canterbury Tales that “if gold can rust, what should iron do?”33
The mere existence of corruption has an immense impact on society, and
particularly on the development of a country. Corruption easily flourishes
in countries that are developing. A developing country has numerous
resources (monetary, property or natural resources) at its disposal aimed at
enhancing the growth of the economy or its development, in an effort to
advance people’s way of life. A sound, wise and rational use of these
resources depends on the efficient and honest fulfilment of official
obligation(s) by state officials. Often these officials fail to diligently
perform their duties because they frequently gravitate towards engaging in
practices aimed at enriching themselves at the expense of the general public.
32 Angola (José Eduardo dos Santos 1979-2017), Cameroon (Paul Biya is the current
president of Cameroon and took Presidential office in 1982), Republic of the Congo
(Denis Sassou Nguesso took office in 1943 and continues to be the president),
Equatorial Guinea (Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo is the current president since
1982) and Gabon (Omar Bongo Ondimba 1967-2009).
33 Geoffrey Chaucer, Canterbury Tales (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1990), 11.
Introduction 11
UNDERSTANDING CORRUPTION:
A SYNOPSIS
1 Laurence Cockcroft, Global Corruption (New York: Best Red, 2014), 80. See also
John Thomas Noonan, Bribes (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987), xx.
2 Benon C. Basheka, “Public Administration and Corruption in Uganda” in Public
34.
7 Jean-Pierre Olivier De Sardan, “A moral economy of corruption in Africa”, The
officers. These officials are often influenced by low salaries, poor service
conditions or lack of opportunities for professional growth. 16
There are various conflicting views with respect to the types or forms of
corruption. On the one hand, some scholars identify three basic types of
corruption, namely political, economic, and public administration
corruption.17 Other scholars, on the other hand, are of the view that there are
two basic types of corruption, which they term state capture and
administrative corruption. Scholars consider state capture as the actions by
an individual, groups or firms, performed in the public or private sector in
order to influence law formations, decrees, and other governmental policies
to their own advantage as a result of illicit and non-transparent provisions
aimed at providing private benefits for public officials. 18 Considering the
definition of state capture, administrative corruption could be understood as
the influence that private benefits to state officials may have in the
implementation of rules. Administrative corruption could further be
understood as the institutionalised personal use and abuse of public
resources by those in public office and in governments with weaker
bureaucratic capacity and accountability.19
In contrast, in economies heavily regulated by government, there are
only two types of corruption: restrictive and expansive. The latter
encompasses activities aimed at facilitating, improving and enhancing
competitive exchange. Activities in this category are aimed at moving the
economy towards its more competitive ideal state, which will, therefore, be
beneficial to wealth creation and economic growth. Restrictive corruption,
on the other hand, is aimed at limiting opportunities for mutually beneficial
free exchange and is perceived as a constraint to wealth creation.20
Time and again, corruption is said to occur in the public sector. The basis
for the occurrence of large-scale corruption in the public sector could be
because of high-ranking state officials exploiting resources allocated to the
16 Ljung, “The Nature of Corruption in the Water Sector”, 19 -20; and De Sardan,
“A moral economy of corruption in Africa”, 28-29.
17 See Chapter 1.
18 Cheryl Williamson Gray, Joel S. Hellman, and Randi Ryterman, Anticorruption
26Olaniyan, Corruption and Human Rights Law in Africa, 1 and 5. See also Basheka,
“Public Administration and Corruption in Uganda”, 59.
27 Jong-sung and Khagram, “A Comparative Study of Inequality and Corruption”,
140.
28 Basheka, “Public Administration and Corruption in Uganda”, 61.
29 Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment (No. 20) Act of 2013.
20 Chapter Two
Reflections from a Study of Political Corruption”, Journal of Law and Society 23,
no. 1 (1996), 74.
Understanding Corruption: A Synopsis 21
participate in illegal transactions and of those who, even though they have
no desire to be involved, occupy authoritative positions where corrupt
opportunities are most frequent. In the simplest of terms, politicians
involved in corrupt activities have little fear of the risks involved because
they have little to lose.34
Considering its relationship with democracy, corruption is usually a
result of duplicitous violations of the democratic norm of inclusion. The
conceptual link between the two concepts can be seen when individuals,
who have a claim to inclusion in collective decisions and actions, are subject
to deceitful and harmful segregation. The inexistence of a conceptual guide
as to what corruption entails in a democracy is due to corruption damages
not being related to the systematic norms of democracy. 35 Democracy is
defined by the link between collective decision-making and the power
people have to influence decisions through acts of speech and voting. In a
democratic society, corruption breaks this link by minimising effective
public action, thus creating ineffective public service deliveries; shrinking
the perception of collective actions; undermining democratic capacity
among individuals in civil society by generalising suspicions, eroding trust
and reciprocity; moving public activities to sectors that may make it
possible for individuals to engage in corruption; and finally, transforming
the rights which people are entitled to, thus turning them into favours that
can be repaid in kind.36
An ideal democratic political system is characterised by principles that
presume that a government is accountable to its citizens, the laws
administered are equitable and fair, governmental actions are transparent,
and all citizens have access to the political process. However, failure by
such a government to fulfil these principles could imply that the political
system is concealed by low legitimacy levels. With corruption being part of
modern democracies, it systematically weakens democratic principles (such
as accountability, equality and openness); as a result, it diminishes the faith
Burnell, Vicky Randall, and Lise Rakner, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014),
233.
39 Olaniyan, Corruption and Human Rights Law in Africa, 8.
40 Frans Viljoen, International Human Rights Law in Africa (Oxford: Oxford
corruption cases against high-level state officials simply serve no more than
a symbolic purpose to the principle of state accountability. This is because
where the prosecution of high-level perpetrators takes place, irrespective of
the outcome of the case, the corrupt state officials prosecuted often keep
their ill-gotten wealth.42
Corrupt politicians are in a position to obtain support and complicity
from magistrates and other anti-corruption organs.43 In order to address the
ineffectiveness of anti-corruption mechanisms, anti-corruption agencies or
institutions must be designed in such a way that no state official will possess
a monopoly or have control over these institutions, and that the only power
a state official may possess is that linked to the mechanisms of
accountability. With regard to the rules that guide the operations of officials,
such rules should be clear and should, as much as possible, “minimise the
chances for the exercise of discretionary judgment”. 44
Even though the criminal approach has little influence in the fight
against corruption, the biggest challenge for a country with a high level of
corruption would be finding ways to reform an institutionally corrupt
political system that lacks capacity.45 Human rights laws alone cannot
possibly provide a solution to the problem of corruption; they can,
nonetheless, be seen as a strong deterrent and motivation for one to take
action. Human rights can be seen as a means to justice and fairness, and the
basis of effective remedies for victims of corruption. Most importantly, all
that human rights laws have accomplished could be beneficial to anti-
corruption movements. On the other hand, criminal law may also aid in
curbing corruption. However, criminal law, on its own, cannot be used to
fight corruption because the criminal law response to corruption tends to be
technical, onerous and problematic, often due to the element of secrecy in
which corruption is undertaken. What criminal law does is provide short-
term enforcement benefits, while human rights law may establish
substantial accountability mechanisms and normative standards, which are
not only long-term but also durable and sustainable. The basis for this is that
human rights serve as a foundation for freedom, justice and peace, reflecting
the value of divinity and embracing the idea that the violation of a person’s
human rights suggests a lack of respect to which they are entitled.46
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