The article provides a snapshot examination of what it considers to be 'standard' research on corruption conducted by researchers in South African research institutions. These include the Institute for Security Studies, Public Service Accountability Monitor, Human Sciences Research Council and the University of the Witwatersrand. The article argues that, generally, the studies on corruption in South Africa are short-term, lack a longitudinal research perspective, often fragmented initiative of various institutions, donor driven and do not take full advantage of multi-disciplinarity and institutional collaborations. Hence the conceptualisations of corruption in existing research are inadequate. The normative, legalistic and moralistic premise of the state's definition of corruption is not problematised but is assumed, to be the national understanding of corruption. The article also argues that existing research fails to ex