A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of
Master’s in Mathematical and Computer Science and Engineering of the Nelson
Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology
Corruption can be defined generally as taking bribes, forcing out benefit, receiving money or
gifts as favour in exchange for doing one’s job. Worldwide corruption is considered a problem
that affects many countries in the world currently. Individuals loses their rights, lower
community confidence in public authorities, termination of employment, absence of peace and
security and misallocation of resources. Despite various measures which have been taken by
different countries to control corruption, the problem still persists. The negative impacts of
corruption are well known; however, little has been done on mathematical modelling on
corruption, particularly the inclusion of mass education and religious teaching as a strategy for
controlling corruption spread. In this study, the mathematical model for the dynamics of
corruption in the absence and presence of these control measures are presented and analysed
to determine which parameter are very sensitive to the spread of corruption and how will these
control strategies help to reduce corruption. Most parameters used in this work are from
different literature and some were assumed. The next generation matrix method is used to
compute the basic and effective reproduction number which used to study the corruption
dynamics. Sensitivity analysis results shows that, parameters of mass education and religious
teaching are the most sensitive to the control of corruption. Also, stability analysis for
equilibrium states by linearization, Lyapunov function and use of the Lassalle’s invariance
principle was derived and the results shows that the corruption free equilibrium is locally and
globally asymptotically stable when 𝑅0 < 1 and endemic equilibrium is globally
asymptotically stable when 𝑅0 > 1. The model was simulated by using Runge-Kutta 4
th order
in MATLAB and the results depict that when mass education
and religious teaching
are
combined together as a control measures, corruption within the country is successfully
controlled in a short period of time. The study recommends to invest more in provision of mass
education to the citizens through creating general awareness to all and including it in education
curriculum from pre-primary to university as well as to use religious leaders to teach their
followers seriously about the impact of corruption. The numerical simulation results agreed
with the analytical results.