The establishment of an interministerial committee this week to formulate
new strategies on how the government can effectively deal with the rampant
scourge of corruption is in many ways a tacit admission by President Jacob Zuma
that the pilfering of state coffers has spiralled out of control.
It is significant that such a committee was appointed when the country is
still reeling from shock at the Special Investigating Unit's correctional
services corruption report tabled in parliament this week.
The report revealed how prison tenders worth more than R1-billion were
characterised by kickbacks and bribes channelled to senior public servants,
their families and associates by the equally iniquitous service providers.
The ministerial committee's formation comes at a time when the ink has hardly
dried on the auditor-general's report that revealed how corrupt civil servants
and their families benefited from government tenders worth more than
R600-million.
This week, human settlements minister Tokyo Sexwale added salt to the wound when
he revealed how his department was compelled to rebuild 40000 defective low-cost
RDP houses built by greedy contractors, some of whom have become instant
millionaires.
It is matter of public record that many politically connected crooks who have
swindled the state - from the corrupt Land Bank deals to milking school feeding
schemes - are walking the streets as free men because corruption appears not to
be punished in this country.
South Africa risks gaining a reputation as one of the most corrupt countries in
the world if we do not nip the scourge in the bud. In the midst of abject
poverty and hunger, greed and the speedy accumulation of wealth have become the
most defining characteristics of South Africa's post-apartheid democracy.
Public office, in particular, is seen as a stepping stone to instant riches by
many officials elected to office. Politicians and civil servants use their
new-found status to line their own pockets and those of their associates through
illicit and ill-gotten tenders.
We want to believe that by appointing the anti-corruption ministerial committee,
Zuma has recognised that corruption has become
the real threat to the future of South Africa's democracy.
Whatever recommendations this committee comes up with, it must ensure that it
proposes measures that will make it difficult for venal politicians and civil
servants to loot any further.
Corruption has burgeoned because culprits get
away with it. Zuma needs to set an example by adding substance to the
anti-corruption rhetoric. It would send a
message of confidence to the citizens of our country and, indeed, the rest of
the world if our president ensures that all government officials and their
cronies, however politically connected, found guilty of pilfering, are rooted
out and face the full force of the law.