Explore the evidence.
Understand the reach.

Since Sub-Saharan Africa's first independence in Ghana, the region has experienced massive and costly political and bureaucratic corruption within public service and administration. The causes of the corruption, its nature and form are wide and intertwined. In Sub-Saharan Africa, efforts to curb corruption have failed to discard it. The paper focused on the period from Nkruma in Ghana to Mutharika the 2nd in Malawi. This paper reviewed existing literature on political and bureaucratic corruption in Sub-Saharan Africa while on the other hand the paper employed key informant interviews to gather the required data to investigate, analyse and profile the genesis and evolution of corruption in Sub-Saharan Africa. The key informant interviews were employed to solicit public views and opinion from nineteen key informant participants (n=19) selected from 11 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. The paper found that corruption is legendary; has entrenched itself to becoming some sort of culture in the region, and has become the most difficult socio-economic challenge to resolve in the region despite the various anti-corruption efforts employed by stakeholders to curb it. It emerged through the study that law-enforcement efforts against corruption need some reinforcement in order to be effective and eficient in uprooting corruption in the region. If Sub-Saharan Africa fails to address its corruption challenge, its development prospects would seriously curtailed.

The article seeks to examine the phenomenon of corruption within the specific context of South Africa. The primary inquiry posed in the study is, 'What are the instances and underlying factors contributing to corruption in South Africa?' Corruption arises from a multitude of factors, including avarice, the pursuit of authority, and the dynamics of elite networking, among others. The presence of these factors within the nation fosters an atmosphere of impropriety at both the political and bureaucratic tiers of governance. The nation has instituted a range of anti-corruption bodies and strategies; however, the existing gaps in implementation pose significant obstacles to the effective realisation of these initiatives, thereby hindering efforts to combat or mitigate the prevalence of corruption. The research adopts a qualitative methodology and employs desktop analysis to gather information. The information was obtained through a thorough examination of existing literature and document analyses. The information underwent evaluation through conceptual and documentary content analysis. The findings indicate that cultural and normative frameworks that undermine democracy and the Bill of Rights are perpetuated by corruption. The ethical frameworks that dictate institutional ethics stand in contrast to the principles of public administration. The populace may experience a decline in trust towards governmental institutions and their operations due to the capacity to question the integrity of their elected officials. The article culminates in a proposal for the establishment of codes, strategies, and a culture governed by ethical principles, aimed at fostering ethical values among both employees and employers. It is of paramount significance that individuals embrace personal responsibility and accountability to engage ethically within the workplace, thereby contributing to the overarching organisational culture and values. This research enhances the understanding of public governance, human resource management, organisational development, and leadership studies.

This study examines the effect of some economic and non-economic factors on corruption.  It tests a number of hypotheses formulated around the impact of specific dimensions on increasing or reducing corruption in the Middle East and North Africa Region over a time series from 2008 to 2018. The objective of this study is to illuminate the impact of several independent factors (average income, economic freedom, education, income distribution and globalization) on corruption increase or decrease in the MENA region taking a few countries as a sample case. To reach this end, secondary data is employed and retrieved from secondary sources using published reports and indexes and official websites and databases maintained by various research institutions. The results are tested using panel data regression analysis as a statistical tool for data analysis and hypotheses testing. Findings indicate a significant effect of the presented economic and non-economic determinants on corruption in these sample countries except income distribution which shows an insignificance effect.

This paper tries to examine in detail political stability in the European Union’s (EU) countries during the period 2002-12. Firstly, it examines the causality relationship between political stability and economic growth, which is an issue that has puzzled scholars for decades. Using the Granger causality test the empirical findings suggest that in the case of the EU’s countries, causality is one directional, moving from political stability to economic growth. Secondly, it examines the factors that affect political stability. Using the fixed effects panel data model, we may suggest that the long term recession, the increased unemployment ratios and the high levels of inflation significantly threaten political stability. However, there are other factors that are not exclusively due to economics, such as transparency, public health care, education etc., which may significantly reduce the previously mentioned consequences.  Finally, this study suggests some reforms of the EU’s regulation according to the migration policy that may smooth social and humanitarian disparities.  

Corruption remains a prominent institutional barrier that hampers foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow in developing countries. However, the specific impact of corruption on FDI inflows in Tanzania remains largely unexplored. This research aims to contribute to the existing body of knowledge by examining the consequences of corruption on FDI inflows in Tanzania between 1996 and 2021. The analysis utilizes time series institutional data obtained from the World Bank governance indicators and FDI inflow data from the Bank of Tanzania (BOT). Given the consideration of multiple variables, a multiple regression model is employed to analyze the data. Unit root tests such as the expanded Dickey-Fuller and Johansen cointegration tests are utilised to assess whether the variables are cointegrated and whether the data exhibits stationarity or nonstationarity. The findings of this study unequivocally demonstrate that corruption (CC) has a significant adverse effect on both short-term and long-term FDI inflows. The data from 1996 to 2021 consistently indicate a noteworthy influence of corruption (CC) on FDI inflows. Consequently, this research recommends concerted efforts to combat corruption in order to improve the investment climate and attract foreign investors.

Lifestyle audits are the best method to combat corruption in both the private and public spheres. A lifestyle audit is conducted if a red flag is raised in relation to corruption. Any sudden change in an individual’s lifestyle raises a red flag. However, this type of crime is common among mostly the powerful top officials of organisations, companies or institutions. This paper reviews the use of lifestyle audits as a tool to combat corruption. The researcher adopted a non-empirical research design and followed the predetermined steps properly. Furthermore, merely the literature sources and observations used for arguments and integration purposes with intent to solve the problems identified. Again, the researcher examined some solved corruption cases published in the Auditor General’s report, reported on in newspapers and discussed on social media platforms. To add this, the observation of the published corruption cases used as the examples in this article. The findings of this article suggest that lifestyle auditor or analysts or crime investigators must conduct the lifestyle audit by following the legal proper procedures to avoid the blunders in audit the lifestyle of the offender or suspect. This article concludes by making recommendations of the lifestyle audit needs more auditing and financial investigation skills that are of more advanced.

The quality of institutions continues to be a pertinent issue due to its potential direct and indirect effects on economic growth. The research examined the correlation between institutional quality and economic growth in Botswana from 1990 to 2022. The research utilised the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) Bounds model to assess cointegration and the Toda and Yamamoto and Dolado and Lütkepohl (TYDL) model to investigate the direction of causality. The ARDL methodology is favoured for this research because to its applicability to small sample sizes. This method is not constrained by the sequence of integration among the variables. The results demonstrate that corruption adversely impacts economic growth in both the short term and the long term. Regulatory frameworks and governmental stability exert a substantial favourable influence on economic growth in both the short and long term. The analysis identified a bidirectional causative relationship between government stability and economic growth, as well as a unidirectional causal relationship from regulatory rules to economic growth. This study revealed a negative impact of labour on economic vitality. The cointegrating link indicates that the Botswana government ought to prioritise investments in institutional quality, targeted procedures, and policies due to their direct influence on economic growth. The report advocates for the Botswana government to formulate and implement legislation that fosters and advances the development of the citizen sector. The Botswana government should improve and sustain the factors that contribute to institutional quality, as they facilitate development.

This article contends that the governance of public tenderpreneurship in South Africa fails to foster entrepreneurship ecosystems characterised by dynamic micro-foundation capabilities, which are essential for enabling business ambidexterity in state tender-based enterprises. The article posits that political, bureaucratic, and public bribery corruption develop within a public order that is fundamentally opposed to, and incompatible with, the fostering of entrepreneurial ambidexterity. Thus, its theoretical contribution lies in the evolution of dynamic capabilities within the frameworks of entrepreneurship ecosystems, micro-foundations, and the conceptions of public order corruption from the perspectives of republicanism and liberalism. The desktop literature analysis identifies 47 dynamic micro-foundation capabilities across strategic operations, marketing, innovation, and information systems governance domains that facilitate the incubation of entrepreneurship ecosystems. Furthermore, it formulates one question for each governance domain of entrepreneurship ecosystems as a summative normative assessment of South Africa's tenderpreneurship preferential treatment governance. The article concludes that South Africa's governance of state tenderpreneurship promotes a public order characterised by the rapid emergence of tender-based entrepreneurs and businesses, alongside corruption ecosystems that lack processes orientated towards entrepreneurship, such as sensing, seizing, and transformation, as well as dynamic capabilities necessary for fulfilling service level contractual obligations, reconfiguration, and renewal. Tenderpreneurship governance is problematic due to hidden agendas that undermine democratic transformation, lacking transparency in the exercise of public power and disregarding citizens' claims to equality as legitimate rights-holders. The article recommends the following: the establishment of mandatory requirements for public accountability in the exercise of entrusted public power; the promotion of authentic citizenship and public order where all citizens are political equals and legitimate rights-holders; the prohibition of covert preferential treatment in state tenderpreneurship governance; and the implementation of a rigorous meritocracy-based state procurement governance system.

Effective border management is fundamental to protecting national sovereignty, safeguarding citizens, and preventing the infiltration of organised criminal networks. In South Africa, the South African Police Service (SAPS) is entrusted with law enforcement at border posts. However, recurring incidents of corruption among SAPS officials often involving collusion with criminal syndicates have rendered several border posts, including Beitbridge, weak and porous. This study evaluates SAPS border officials’ corruption and its security implications at the Beitbridge border post in Limpopo Province. The objectives are to investigate the nature and forms of corruption involving SAPS officials, examine the socio-economic and security-related impacts, assess the effectiveness of current anti-corruption mechanisms, and propose evidence-based recommendations to enhance accountability and transparency. The study employs a qualitative research approach grounded in the interpretivist paradigm and adopts a case study design centred on Beitbridge. Data were gathered through in-depth document analysis, encompassing 45 key documents such as official reports, policy frameworks, and media investigations, considered sufficient for achieving qualitative rigour and thematic saturation. The Broken Windows Theory is applied to explain how tolerance of minor misconduct escalates into systemic corruption and institutional decay. Findings reveal that entrenched corruption undermines law enforcement integrity, facilitates organised criminal activity, and compromises national border security. The study concludes that strengthening institutional oversight, reinforcing accountability structures, and promoting inter-agency cooperation are vital for curbing corruption and enhancing border management effectiveness. The study’s novelty lies in its focused examination of Beitbridge and its application of the Broken Windows Theory to border corruption within the South African context.

There is a dichotomy between the conventional theoretical view, which postulates that increased quality of governance stimulates economic growth and advances private capital formation. This study investigates the impact of governance quality and government expenditure on economic growth in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. The study applied the Pooled Mean Group and Autoregressive Distributed Lag (PMG-ARDL) model. The annual panel covers the period 2002 – 2023, which comprises five selected countries from the SADC member states. The data set was obtained from the World Bank World Governance Indicators (WBWGI) databases. In the short run, economic growth was linked to government expenditure. In the long run, technical governance quality variables bring participants into action or service through control of corruption and the rule of law. The technical governance quality variables contribute to economic growth and are positive in the long run. At the same time, democratic governance quality variables influence economic growth negatively. However, it was highlighted that a permanent increase in country government expenditure could be experienced due to continuous randomness. The study revealed that weak governance and unstable government expenditure deteriorate economic growth complexity. Henceforth, this study has also enhanced the governance quality and government expenditure theories and empirical literature concerning economic growth by exposing that the governance quality of the selected SADC countries endures commotion. This study recommends that achieving selected SADC growth can be possible by balancing the technical governance quality variables and abating the democratic governance quality variables. Thus, the study contributes by outlining the golden thread that national and international policies should be prioritized in control of corruption and endorse governance effectiveness, regulatory quality, the rule of law, and managing expenditure within the threshold level.