South Africa must adopt an anti-corruption culture that is taught at kindergarten right through to institutions of higher learning, Public Service and Administration Minister Richard Baloyi said on Thursday.

"We must create a public awareness that makes it anti-South African to be corrupt," he said at an anti-corruption business forum in Johannesburg, hosted by Business Unity South Africa (Busa).

Since corruption undermined the rule of law, it was incumbent on the business community to join forces with the government to combat it.

"It is the business community that must write the rules of business, they cannot be determined by those not in business."

Corruption could stunt economic development in the country as it would discourage foreign direct investment.

South Africa ranked 54th in Transparency International's 2010 Corruption Perceptions Index released on Tuesday.

The country had a score of 4,5. Botswana was best of all African countries at 33rd with a score of 5,8. The closer the score is to ten, the less corrupt a country is perceived to be.

Baloyi said that this indicated South Africa had a growing corruption problem. It had the infrastructure to combat corruption, but it was not being properly used.

"Corruption could collapse the economy in ways only realised once the collapse has taken place."