SA governance unfavourable: Mo Ibrahim Index

South Africa has shown unfavourable governance performance since 2006, the 2012 Mo Ibrahim Index of African Governance said in a summary report on Tuesday.

Over the past six years, it found that Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa had declined in two categories -- safety and rule of law, and participation and human rights.

"Each of these four countries deteriorated the most in the participation sub-category, which assesses the extent to which citizens have the freedom to participate in the political process."

South Africa and Kenya had also registered declines in sustainable economic opportunity.

South Africa was placed third out of 12 countries in southern Africa, and fifth out of 52 African countries overall.

It received the highest score in the human development category and the lowest score in the sustainable economic opportunity category.

For personal safety, the country was placed 41st.

"Given the vast natural and human resources of these four regional powers, these governance results are a concern," said Abdoulie Janneh, board member of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation.

"Each of these countries plays a key role in the economic and political landscape of the continent. To continue to optimally play this role requires a sustained commitment to balanced and equitable governance."

The London-based foundation publishes the index, ranking the 52 African countries according to 88 indicators grouped under safety and the rule of law, participation and human rights, sustainable economic opportunity, and human development.

There has been no change in its top five this year -- with Mauritius topping the index with a score of 83 out of 100, ahead of Cape Verde with 78, Botswana 77, Seychelles 73, and South Africa 71.

Somalia remained at the bottom with a score of seven, behind Democratic Republic of Congo, Chad, and Eritrea with 33.

"Good governance is about harnessing a country’s resources to achieve the results any citizen living in the 21st century has a right to expect," said founder Mo Ibrahim.

"One of Africa’s biggest leadership and governance challenges going forward is to master its own robust statistical system. Political sovereignty begins with data autonomy."