The Proudly South African “Buy Local” campaign has called on all its member companies, partners and supporters to rally behind Corruption Watch, the anti-corruption watchdog launched last week.

“As proud South Africans, we have to unite to put an end to palm-greasing and theft. Corruption threatens the very fabric of our society and, if left unchecked, it can even threaten our hard-won democracy,” said Proudly South African CEO Adv Leslie Sedibe.

“No country in the world is immune to corruption. However, as a resilient nation which has overcome many challenges and achieved so much since 1994, we have to unite once again in the war on corruption,” said Sedibe.

According to Transparency International’s 2011 Corruption Perceptions Index, South Africa ranks sixty-fourth out of 183 countries, with a score of 4,1. The majority of countries assessed scored below five on a scale of 0 (highly corrupt) to 10 (very clean).

The countries were ranked according to perceived levels of public-sector corruption.

Transparency International says perceptions are used because “corruption, irrespective of the frequency or amount, is a hidden activity that is difficult to measure. Over time, perceptions have proved to be a reliable estimate of corruption”. Proudly South African says corruption is a serious crime.

“We are also proud supporters of the Crime Line initiative which encourages the public to blow the whistle on criminals via the 32211 SMS number,” said Sedibe.

Hundreds of criminals have been arrested since the launch of the initiative almost five years ago.

“It is every South African’s civil duty to report crime and corruption. No matter how big or how small the crime, we must break the silence,” he added.