\n \t\t\t \t\t\t
![\"NM](\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/plugins\/rss-poster\/cache\/6f409_3256236581.jpg\")
<\/p>\n \t
\n \t\t\t \t\t\t <\/p>\n
Gareth Gilmour<\/p>\n
Nigel Payne, chairman of the Durban-based Mr Price Group, unleashed a scathing attack on corruption in the government at the SA Council of Shopping Centres annual congress in Durban.<\/p>\n
\n
\t\t \t\t \t\t\t\t\t \t\t \t\t <\/p>\n
South Africa has experienced a \u201cprecipitous slide\u201d in Transparency International\u2019s Corruption Perception Index since 2007 and faced the prospect of becoming one of the world\u2019s most corrupt nations. <\/p>\n
This was the warning from top businessman Nigel Payne, chairman of the Durban-based Mr Price Group, who unleashed a scathing attack on corruption in the government at the SA Council of Shopping Centres\u2019 annual congress, under way in Durban. <\/p>\n
Speaking to more than 1 300 delegates, he said it was time South Africans got \u201cp***ed off\u201d about corruption. <\/p>\n
Payne said corruption was crippling SA and that firm leadership was needed to reverse the trend to avoid the country falling into the group of the world\u2019s most corrupt nations. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe declining trend in the Transparency International index does not look great. In fact, it is scary for South Africa and almost extreme. The index has a 10-point scoring system\u2026 South Africa dropped from a rating of 4.5 in 2010 to 4.1 in 2011. In 2007 we had a rating of 5.1 and this is a very precipitous slide for any country to have,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Payne said this was SA\u2019s lowest rating in the index since it began 17 years ago. <\/p>\n
He said that once the rating went below four points, one could see SA heading to \u201cfailed state\u201d status, where corruption was a part of daily life and resulted in more protests. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe can\u2019t afford to let that happen\u2026 the downward spiral is hard to reverse\u2026 Things can deteriorate rapidly into an Arab Spring or failed state.\u201d <\/p>\n
He said SA had always been rated in the index\u2019s four-to-six zone \u2013 the zone of \u201cuncertainty\u201d into which most countries fell. Countries rated above six were in the so-called \u201cpremier league\u201d, where \u201csociety squeezes out corruption\u201d. SA should aspire to ascend to this. <\/p>\n
Payne said SA had seen a service delivery protest somewhere in the country almost every day in the past three years. In many cases it was a direct result of some kind of corruption. <\/p>\n
He said there were heroes doing a fantastic job in the government, such as Auditor-General Terence Nombembe and Public Protector Thuli Madonsela. <\/p>\n
Payne said there were outspoken leaders such as Mamphela Ramphele, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu and Nedbank chairman Reuel Khoza, in addition to those who were doing a fantastic job in the government. <\/p>\n
\u201cReuel is probably the only brave businessman out there\u2026 As the retail property industry and business leaders, together with other South Africans, we need to look long and hard at what country we want. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is no longer someone else\u2019s problem. We need an intervention to salvage a future for SA. It is time we get p***ed off about corruption,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gareth Gilmour Nigel Payne, chairman of the Durban-based Mr Price Group, unleashed a scathing attack on corruption in the government at the SA Council of Shopping Centres annual congress in Durban. South Africa has experienced a \u201cprecipitous slide\u201d in Transparency International\u2019s Corruption Perception Index since 2007 and faced the prospect of becoming one of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[8275,953,2143],"class_list":{"0":"post-14875","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-durban","8":"tag-newspaper","9":"tag-the-mercury","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14875\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}