Donna Bryson: Greed and corruption are threatening to destroy South Africa's good name

South Africa's national police chief stands accused of spending taxpayers' money unlawfully. A cabinet minister reportedly used public funds to live in a luxury hotel and fly first-class. And last week, the wife of another minister was convicted of dealing drugs.

As the scandals continue to mount, South Africans have yet to be given explanations, let alone see action against the corruption.

Last week, businesspeople and government officials from around the world attended a World Economic Forum meeting in Cape Town, discussing prospects for development and good government on the African continent.

But analysts say those successes have been undermined by a deep undercurrent of corruption since the advent of democracy.

For the most part, corruption in South Africa, as anywhere in the world, is driven by greed.

But some critics say there is also a sense some of the men and women who made sacrifices during the fight against apartheid now feel they are entitled to financial payback.

Zwelinzima Vavi, a top trade unionist and key ally of the governing African National Congress, is among many who have expressed concern about that sense of entitlement, and condemned the values expressed by politicians who throw extravagant parties and drive luxury cars.

Mr Vavi says growing rich at the public's expense is not what ANC leaders such as Nelson Mandela fought for.

In a speech last year that drew wide attention, Mr Vavi said that if the battle against corruption is lost, "there is no hope of preventing the collapse of our democracy and a descent into a banana republic dictatorship".

South Africa prides itself in having key weapons against corruption, including an independent judiciary and feisty media.

However, Ayesha Kajee, who has served on the board of the anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International, said it was becoming increasingly difficult for ordinary South Africans to get government jobs - or even basic services, such as electricity connections - without bribes.

"It sends a message to those people who really are among the have-nots that the government of the day is not concerned that so many South Africans live in abject poverty," she said.

More broadly, she said, corruption disappoints those elsewhere on the continent who look to South Africa as a model, and could scare off foreign investors.