By Magreth Nunuhe
WINDHOEK – Close to two thirds (63 percent) of Namibians believe that corruption in Namibia has increased over the past year and four in ten also believe that police and government officials are the most corrupt, the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) revealed on Monday when marking International Anti-Corruption Day.
This is according to a survey conducted by the Afrobarometer team and led by IPPR, which interviewed 1 200 adult Namibians in August and September this year.
According to the research, business executives are perceived to the most corrupt and 44 percent of Namibians believe that “most or all” business people are corrupt.
Sixty-five percent of Namibians also believe that government is handling the corruption problem well, while 17 percent of Namibians believe that most or all of the President’s officials in his office are corrupt.
In the same vein, 25 percent of interviewees believe that local authority councillors are corrupt against 26 percent who believe that regional councillors are corrupt.
According to the report, Namibia ranked fifth in the Round 5 Afrobarometer survey in 2012 compared to an African average of 30 percent.
“Just above a third (36 percent) Namibians feel that citizens can influence the fight against corruption by reporting such activity to authorities or refusing to pay bribes (17 percent), while 12 percent think the ordinary people cannot do anything to fight corruption,” reads the report.
On the other hand, a strong 70 percent believe that the media are effective in exposing government mistakes and corruption.
The Afrobarometer is an African-led non partisan research network that conducts public attitude surveys on democracy, governance, economic conditions and related issues across more than 30 countries in Africa.
Five rounds of surveys have been conducted between 1999 and 2013 and surveys are currently underway for 2014-2015.