A report on South Africa’s investment climate says the country’s systemic corruption is synonymous with the administration of former President Jacob Zuma.

This is according to a report by the U.S. Department of State titled ‘2023 Investment Climate Statements: South Africa’.

Though acknowledging South Africa’s robust anti-corruption framework, the report decried the country’s inadequate law enforcement, low public sector accountability, and the risk faced by whistleblowers.

The report alleged that “high-level political interference has undermined the country’s National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) from responding to corruption in the public sector and the fallout from state capture.”

It added, “‘State capture’, a term used to describe systemic corruption of the state’s decision-making processes by private interests, is synonymous with the administration of former president Jacob Zuma.”

The U.S. government said President Cyril Ramaphosa, responding to calls for accountability, “launched four separate judicial commissions of inquiry to investigate corruption, fraud, and maladministration, including in the Public Investment Corporation, South African Revenue Service, and the NPA, which have revealed pervasive networks of corruption across all levels of government.”

It also noted that a report on the findings of the Zondo Commission of Inquiry, launched in 2018 and published in 2022, exposed the pervasive depth and breadth of corruption under Mr Zuma.

The U.S. views the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act (PCCA), which officially criminalises corruption in public and private sectors and codifies specific offences, such as extortion and money laundering, as ‘inconsistently implemented’ and lacking whistleblower protections.

Meanwhile, the U.S. government has alleged widespread official corruption in South Africa under President Cyril Ramaphosa’s administration.

“The government did not take credible steps to investigate, prosecute, and punish officials who may have committed human rights abuses. There were numerous reports of impunity,” said a recently released report by the U.S. government on human rights practices in South Africa.

A commission chaired by Chief Justice Raymond Zondo recommended a report on tackling corruption, but the government has yet to implement the recommendation, the U.S. government noted. Mr Zondo’s report identified rampant corruption at Transnet, the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa, and South African Airways, among others.

Last year, Mr Ramaphosa, the head of the ruling African National Congress (ANC), came under fire from the opposition following a parliamentary report that accused him of corruption.

He was nearly impeached after parliamentary reports accused the South African president of serious misconduct by allegedly hiding a large sum of funds in undeclared foreign currency at his farm in 2020.