PRECCA Amendment Bill – is corruption about to get far more expensive?

Kim Rew | Partner | Webber Wentzel | mail me |

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.

The two key amendments

• Mandatory minimum sentences

Currently, 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.

The new sentencing framework:…

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