South Africa ranks 54th in Transparency International's 2010 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) released on Tuesday.

South Africa scored 4,5 in this year's index. A score of zero indicates highly corrupt, and ten a low level of corruption.

The 2010 CPI showed nearly three quarters of the 178 countries in the index scored below five, indicating a "serious corruption problem", the global civil society organisation said.

Botswana rated highest of all African countries at 33rd with a score of 5,8. Mauritius notched up 5,4 in 39th place.

"These results signal that significantly greater efforts must go into strengthening governance across the globe. With the livelihoods of so many at stake, governments' commitments to anti-corruption, transparency and accountability must speak through their actions," the organisation's chair Huguette Labelle said in a statement.

Good governance was an essential part of the solution to the global policy problems governments faced.

Transparency International advocated stricter implementation of the UN Convention against Corruption, the only global initiative that provided a framework for putting an end to corruption.

"Allowing corruption to continue is unacceptable; too many poor and vulnerable people continue to suffer its consequences around the world. We need to see more enforcement of existing rules and laws and there should be nowhere to hide for the corrupt or their money," Labelle said.

Denmark, New Zealand and Singapore tied for first place with scores of 9,3.

Unstable governments, often with a legacy of conflict, continued to dominate the bottom rungs of the index.

Afghanistan and Myanmar shared second-to-last place with a score of 1,4, with Somalia coming in last at 1,1.