South Africa has better measures in place to tackle software piracy when compared to its African peers.

This is the view of an International Data Corporation (IDC) expert responding to a Software Alliance (BSA) survey, conducted earlier this year, which claimed a one percentage-point drop in the use of unlicensed software in South Africa since 2011.

According to the BSA research, this means that one in three copies of software installed on South African PCs during 2013 were not properly licensed. The digital crimes unit at Microsoft South Africa has also claimed in a statement that the estimated commercial value of unlicensed software in SA stands at R4,11 billion.

While software piracy runs into the billions of rands in South Africa, the country does lead other African nations in terms of curbing this problem.

Zimbabwe; for example, has a 90% software piracy rate, according to figures from the IDC.

Meanwhile, the Software Alliance (BSA) says software piracy rates in the Mideast and Africa reached 59% in 2013. In countries such as Algeria, the rate is 85%, in Cameroon it is 82% and in the Ivory Coast it is 80%, says BSA data.

"SA has historically had a much more robust regulatory and IP (intellectual property) protection environment, and actually has industry watchdogs," Lise Hagen, IDC research manager for software and IT services in Africa, told ITWeb Africa.

Other factors also play into South Africa's favour, such as the maturity of its economy which is ranked second biggest on the continent behind Nigeria.

"SA has a larger proportion of larger enterprises when compared to the rest of Africa, which has a higher proportion of smaller businesses. Larger enterprises are more likely to have legitimate software. Smaller enterprises, especially SMEs, are much more likely to use pirated software," Hagen told ITWeb Africa.

"Approximately 95% of new PCs in SA ship with software installed – and the vast majority of that software is legitimate," said Hagen.

Hagen further explained that this also translates into the consumer market in SA.

"SA has a larger consumer base buying new PCs than the rest of Africa, which tends to have a much larger proportion second hand market and grey imports," Hagen said.

Meanwhile, the trend of falling software piracy rates in South Africa could continue, say other experts.

"Hopefully this drop signals the start of a downward trend," Marius Haman, chair of the South African committee of the BSA, said in a statement issued last week.

"Compared to unlicensed products, properly licensed software offers computer users more peace of mind when it comes to operational efficiency and security. Corporate users and general PC users are starting to view this peace of mind as an important component of success in business," Haman said.