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Dispatch

AD7: Namibians see increased corruption; business executives now top list of ‘most corrupt’

Ellison Tjirera 3 Dec 2014 Namibia
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Key findings
  • Six in 10 respondents (63%) say the level of corruption in Namibia has increased “a lot” or “somewhat” over the past year.
  • Business executives are perceived to be the most corrupt. More than four in 10 respondents (44%) say “most” or “all” business executives are corrupt.
  • Three-quarters (75%) of respondents perceive the news media as “somewhat effective” or “very effective” in exposing government mistakes and corruption.
  • Conversely, the government gets increasingly negative ratings on tackling corruption, as almost two thirds (65%) of respondents say the government is performing “very badly” or “fairly badly.”

Corruption has yet to gain prominence as a public policy issue in Namibia. Most respondents to the 2014 Afrobarometer survey in Namibia do not rank corruption among the top priorities that the government needs to address.

Other surveys rank Namibia relatively high in the fight against corruption. Namibia improved in Transparency International’s 2014 Corruption Perceptions Index, from 57th in 2013 to 55th out of 175 countries. Tied with Lesotho, Namibia ranks ahead of South Africa (67th) and trails Botswana (31st) and Mauritius (47th).

Ellison Tjirera

Ellison Tjirera is a research associate with the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) in<br /> Namibia.