I wonder how much President Thabo Mbeki’s recent statement on the dangers of corruption has to do with heading off supporters of Jacob Zuma.

Whatever the cause, it’s a statement long overdue. Corruption has pervasive effects. South Africa’s massive road death toll is a direct consequence of corruption of traffic policing. How can so many unroadworthy vehicles and obviously incompetent drivers be on the roads unless officials and traffic cops are being paid off on a systematic basis?

Three people I know have been killed in recent years in car crashes. How much worse can it be for those who have no option but to travel in unsafe taxis?

In another example, the high levels of crime we are told are “improving” have to be related to police corruption. How many of us have heard of case files that have disappeared? Of culprits caught red-handed escaping from police cells?

As long as the culture of personal benefit pervades the system from the Cabinet down, it will be very hard to turn around the attitude that allows police to neglect their duties to trawl for bribes before a long weekend. It will be hard to change the mindset of taxi operators, who maximise profit at the expense of safety, by paying bribes rather than maintaining their vehicles or training their drivers.

It is the core constituency of the African National Congress -- the poor, the dispossessed -- who will suffer the most if this scourge is left unchecked. How ironic, therefore, can it be that there is a populist movement to paint Zuma as a victim?

With acknowledgements to Philip Machanick and the Mail & Guardian.