Nonprofit organisation Corruption Watch applauded the public’s role in combating corruption in 2015, with 10 573 people reporting corruption since the organisation’s inception in 2012.

The organisation released its 2015 annual report on Wednesday, which revealed that 2 382 complaints of corruption were registered in 2015.

Seventy-one percent of the overall reports fell within Corruption Watch’s definition of corruption compared with 56% in the previous year.

The organisation said the improvements could be attributed to the mechanisms that it had set in place to enhance the public understanding of corruption.

Corruption Watch had, amongst others, distributed public education materials, undertaken widespread media reporting on corruption hotspots and increased interaction on social media.

The corruption hotspots in 2015 included schools, which made up 16% of overall reports during the year; traffic and licensing at 12%; immigration at 6% and housing and healthcare at 5% and 3% respectively.

Gauteng once again scored worst in the provincial rankings with 50% of corruption reports, KwaZulu-Natal had 12%  and the remaining provinces hovered between 5% and 7%.

Corruption Watch executive director David Lewis said the organisation’s overriding mission was to encourage and enable public participation in combating corruption.

He urged members of the public to report experiences of corruption to Corruption Watch.

Lewis said the reports not only enabled the organisation to identify patterns and hotspots of corruption and devise anticorruption strategies but also enabled the organisation to operate with the backing of evidence provided by the public.

Lewis said this year Corruption Watch would embark on a major drive to increase the volume of reports from the victims and opponents of corruption. 

Corruption Watch recently launched the Bua Mzansi campaign which aimed to encourage the public to take an active part in nominating suitable candidates to replace current Public Protector Thuli Madonsela when her term of office ends in October this year.

Click here to access Corruption Watch's 2015 annual report.