海角大神

As thousands of South Africans across the country marched Wednesday听morning in protest of the administration of President Jacob Zuma, their banners targeted, in a hundred different ways, a single grievance.听

"We need leaders, not looters," read one sign. "Corruption must fall, Zuma must fall," read another.听听

The march capped a year of official scandals 鈥� including President Zuma's refusal to pay back $20 million in public money used to upgrade his personal home, and government officials' purchase of $43 million worth of train cars that didn't fit on the country's tracks.听听

But the final straw came last week, when Mr. Zuma abruptly announced that he had fired his finance minister, Nhlanhla Nene, replacing him with a nearly unknown politician, David van Rooyen. Many speculated that Zuma was looking for someone more willing to accommodate his expansive spending on controversial projects, including a $100 billion deal to obtain nuclear reactors. But the move sent the South African currency into a tailspin, prompting Zuma to replace Mr. van Rooyen with former finance minister Pravin Gordhan after only four days.听

As the reaction to Mr. Nene's sacking suggests, disenchantment is rising over corruption in Africa's second largest economy. In a recent Transparency International poll, 83 percent of South Africans said they believed corruption has been on the increase here over the past year, a higher percentage than anywhere else in Africa.

That comes even as a November report by the auditor general showed a decline of 27 percent in so-called "irregular expenditures" in government spending over the previous year.听

That disconnect, many experts say, is telling. The problem here, it seems, is听not so much the absolute level of corruption. Instead, anger is focused on where the corruption is happening: at the highest echelons of one of Africa鈥檚 most celebrated democracies, from within the very institutions charged with beating back a long legacy of inequality and exclusion here.听

For many South Africans, high profile cases of corruption are not just a drain on the country鈥檚 finances or a driver of lethargic public service delivery. They are a personal betrayal.听

鈥淭hese cases are incredibly demoralizing for the public,鈥� says Trevor Ngwane, a community activist and sociologist in Johannesburg, of Nene鈥檚 dismissal.听鈥淲hen people see corruption coming from the president鈥檚 office, the highest office in the land, it sends a signal that there鈥檚 a lack of political will to change the situation.鈥澨�

Taking it to the streets

But Mr. Ngwane is also quick to note that a lack of political will doesn't mean a lack of pushback. South Africa has an independent state office investigating corruption 鈥� the aptly-named public protector 鈥� that has put pressure on Zuma's government over the past six years, even if he has shrugged off many of its findings. The country also has a rowdy civil society with extensive experience holding South African governments 鈥� black and white 鈥� to account.

This September, for instance, on the heels of revelations that a state-owned railway company had purchased the misfit train cars,听a motley coalition of civil society groups, including AIDS activists, labor unions, and free speech NGOs,听organized a series of large protest marches targeting state graft.

And when student protesters shut down universities across the country over rising tuition the following month, they linked their own struggle to the unsavory financial dealings of their political leaders.

鈥淚f Zuma won鈥檛 pay back the money, why should we?鈥� read one popular slogan of the protests, referencing the president鈥檚 refusal to return the funds used to upgrade his private home in KwaZulu Natal 鈥� a scandal that has dragged on here since 2009, when investigative journalists first revealed that Zuma intended to expand his homestead to include a private hospital, swimming pool, and cattle grazing area. 听

鈥淭hese young voters don鈥檛 have the same memories of the ANC as an anti-apartheid movement that older generations do,鈥� says Gareth Newham, head of the governance, crime, and justice division at the Institute for Security Studies in Pretoria.听 鈥淭hey鈥檙e fatigued by the constant scandal and I think we鈥檙e going to see that corruption will have an increasingly important role in their political decision making going forward.鈥�

Tackling the problem

Still, corruption remains a difficult issue to tackle, in part because it鈥檚 been a key form of wealth redistribution since apartheid, a way for a new black elite to jump the hurdles of race, class, and education that had excluded them for centuries from the halls of power.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a new channel of access for people disenfranchised by history,鈥� Mr. Newham says.

For most South Africans, however, the possibility of getting ahead by patronage and graft remains a distant reality. Their personal experiences of corruption are far more mundane and belittling: a police officer asking for money to avoid a speeding ticket, an immigration official demanding cash to push a refugee鈥檚 papers through the system. A study released听last week听by the Ethics Institute of South Africa suggested that, 26 percent, or about听1 in 4 South Africans know someone who has been asked to pay a bribe in the last year*, most for traffic offenses or to secure a job.听

Those figures are alarming, says Kris Dobie, the study鈥檚 lead author, but they also shine light on wide gap between people鈥檚 perceptions of the levels of corruption in the country and a more muted reality. While only 26 percent of South Africans knew someone who had been asked to pay a bribe, 78 percent believed it was impossible to get by without paying them.

That's important because the more normal people perceive corruption to be, the easier it is to justify it 鈥� even if those perceptions don鈥檛 align with reality, Mr. Dobie says. That goes for high-level corruption as well. When citizens see enough corruption scandals come and go unpunished, he points out, they begin to believe that government officials can act with impunity.

But for Mr. Ngwane, the activist, there鈥檚 a silver lining.

鈥淲e know now those in power aren鈥檛 going to act,鈥� Ngwane says. 鈥淪o the only people who can address this are the ones who are suffering. Corruption can and will only be stopped by a movement from below.鈥�

*Editor's note: The original version of this story has been edited to clarify听that 26 percent, or about 1 in 4 South Africans know someone who has been asked to pay a bribe in the last year. 听