I am fairly sure that we have corruption in governments all over the world. I do believe in Africa the problem of corruption and fraud has become so bad, that people just accept it as the norm.
The transparency of the blockchain will make a difference. I do not believe it will solve the problem as a whole, but we will at least have proof of fraud and corruption. It is then up to the appropriate figures and entities to take the necessary action against the culprits.
Recent cases of corruption and fraud in South Africa.
There are similar cases across Africa and I am sure across the rest of the world as well. I will use some examples, where in South Africa to proof my point. The nine points below comes from a News Paper bulletin a while back. You can view the original list here
Nkandla South Africa
The South African president Zuma, spent millions of tax payers money to build himself a beautiful little place in his home town, Nkandla. He justified a lot of the money spent as Security Upgrades. For example, the pool he build was justified through that the water will be used just in case of there is a fire on the premises. I really found this video extremely funny where Jeremy Clarkson had a go at President Zuma
Local Governments in South Africa
A few years ago the local governments in South Africa were announced the most corrupt institutions. It is ridiculous to think about how corrupt the guys are that spent your tax money. I work in a large ICT organisation, and encounter many government officials. I am not somebody that stands for corruption and have never paid anybody a bribe to secure work for our organisation. You can see more detail here
Tender Fraud
When you coin a name for tender fraud and corruption it must be in my opinion already out of hand. The phrase tenderpreneurship is now used for case where corrupt individuals award tenders to their friends and family.
Image Credit
The South African Police Services
It is an everyday thing for corrupt police officers forces solicits bribes for not giving traffic fines or much more serious cases. Many court cases are thrown out due to the fact the police case file disappeared.
Image Credit
Our parliament
This must be the worst of all. A few years ago, 14 members of parliament was founded guilty and only had to pay fines after they misused the travel voucher system. In 2011 US$1 Million was written off and no criminal charges was laid against the MP's involved :)
Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula grossly overspent (totalling R65 million) on one awards ceremony in 2013. Yet again a dodgy and inflated tender was involved. According to Business Day Live he spent a colossal R110 million on various prize giving ceremonies while sports development at school level is in the doldrums.
I have hundreds of examples like the above. Our president are still in power, his friends is still in government in leading positions.
I do not believe that it will be easy to get mainstream adoption of any blockchain solution from a government perspective, before we have more transparent and less corrupt government in place. BUT nothing stops us from implementing the solution from bottom up, and get crypto into the hands of the masses and work our way up the ladder.
Happy Steeming
If you enjoy my articles please follow me on my blog at
I am writing a series of articles about problems in Africa, which will be followed with how we can use Blockchain solutions to resolve the problems.
Blockchain WILL solve problems in Africa and other developing countries
Developing countries should embrace blockchain and cryptocurrency
Blockchain in Africa - The Unbanked