In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic confronted politicians and public servants in South Africa with unprecedented challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic has not only laid bare the inequalities within South African society but sadly, it has also portrayed how successive South African public sectors have failed to deal with corruption which has become entrenched within every sector of society. Nonetheless, while the government was preoccupied with the interventions for reducing the spread of COVID-19, some officials saw this as an opportunity for self-enrichment, which compounded South Africa's ability to contain the spread of the pandemic. Insofar as significant attention has been placed on corruption concerning COVID-19, in reality, for the last decade, South Africa's dwindling public finances have been in the spotlight for several reasons such as higher remuneration paid to state employees, bailouts to failing state-owned enterprises