South Africa shows signs of bouncing back in governance index

Despite current controversy over state capture and financial instability‚ governance in South Africa is showing signs of bouncing back from a decade of decline.

This is according to the Mo Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG)‚ a monitor of overall governance performance in African countries which was released on Monday.

The Seychelles‚ Namibia and Tunisia occupied the top tier positions in terms of overall performance while South Africa remains in the top ten most deteriorated countries over the past decade along with Libya‚ Madagascar‚ Mali and the Central African Republic.

SA was ranked 6th in overall governance.

The index collates 17 years’ data for 54 African states‚ using criteria such as security‚ human rights‚ economic stability‚ just laws‚ free elections‚ corruption‚ infrastructure‚ poverty‚ health and education.

South Africa‚ though still registering a deterioration over the decade‚ showed signs of bouncing back‚ potentially reversing decline over the decade by registering a positive trend in the last five years.

Positively‚ the index revealed that Mauritius and South Africa are the two highest scoring countries when it comes to protecting against discrimination‚ both registering 75.0 points in 2016.

Regarding economic growth‚ southern Africa’s growth in general had been stunted.

“If the growth slowdown has been severe for three of the continent’s largest economies (Angola‚ Nigeria and South Africa)‚ when looking at individual African countries the picture is more diverse‚ suggesting that it may be too soon for the ‘African Rising’ narrative to be deemed dead.

“For many second tier economies‚ such as Côte d’Ivoire‚ Kenya‚ Rwanda‚ Senegal and Togo‚ recent economic performance has been solid enough to tell a very positive story‚” the report read.

South Africa‚ accounting for 13.6% of the total African GDP‚ has decreased its pace of deterioration‚ the index stated.