Opinion | Corruption getting costlier

South Africa has been fighting corruption with legislation that, frankly, lacked teeth. The Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act 12 of 2004 (Precca) has long been the cornerstone of the country’s anti-corruption framework — criminalising bribery, fraud and a broad range of corrupt conduct in both the public and private sectors. The law was there.

The convictions, historically, were not. That is rapidly changing. The Precca Amendment Bill of 2026 (Bill 19-2026), introduced to the National Assembly in March 2026 and tabled in Parliament (during the week of 13 July), proposes two deceptively simple but far-reaching changes: mandatory minimum sentences for corruption convictions and a dramatically lower threshold for the obligation to report suspected fraud and corruption.

Together, these amendments signal a new era of accountability, one that will be felt across boardrooms, audit committees, insurance towers and professional practices throughout South Africa. Precca prescribes maximum sentences but leaves sentencing largely to judicial discretion. Courts have frequently imposed sentences well below what the gravity of the offence warrants.

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The Amendment Bill changes, with sentences, are as follows: • High Court — a minimum of 18 years’ imprisonment up to life, plus a fine. • Regional Court — a minimum of 15 years, not exceeding 18 years, plus a fine. • Magistrates’ Court — a minimum of five years, not exceeding ten years, plus a fine.

• Failure-to-report offences (section 28(6) (b))—doubled from R250000 to R500000 and imprisonment raised to five years. A court may still deviate from the minimum sentence, but only if it records substantial and compelling circumstances on the record. This is the same framework applied under the Criminal Law Amendment Act 105 of 1997 for serious violent crimes. The message is unambiguous: corruption is now categorised alongside the most serious offences in our justice system.

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