That’s according to the results of the second South African Citizens’ Bribery Survey by the Ethics Institute of South Africa and Massmart‚ launched in Johannesburg on Tuesday.
The Ethics Institute’s chief executive officer‚ Professor Deon Rossouw‚ said that while the average price of a bribe paid in the country is R2 200‚ the most common bribe was the exchange of a R50 or R100 note – sometimes to get out of a traffic infringement.
The survey showed that the top reason for paying a bribe in 2016 was to avoid traffic fines‚ accounting for 36% of bribes paid in the year. This is up 2% from the figure for 2015.
Furthermore‚ 15% of bribes paid in the 2016 survey were to secure a driver’s licence.
“As in 2015‚ the majority of bribes were related to road use. The combination of bribes to avoid traffic fines‚ and bribes to get driver’s licences came to 51% of bribes.
“If these relatively contained areas of bribery could be reduced‚ it would make a tremendous impact on people’s experiences of bribery‚ and more importantly‚ on South Africa’s high number of road deaths‚” the report said.
