Corruption knows no bounds

Sir,

Sometimes I get the feeling that we get carried away rather quickly in this country and start singing accolades for people quite early. Sometimes when you look at the people who hog headlines you feel like you are having a bad dream because they were so vocal when talking about how they hated corruption. And given what has befallen them, you ask yourself how long have they been corrupt.

Scourge

I mean to have people speak strongly about ridding this country of the scourge of corruption fall victim to the same vice, tells me that politicians who talk against corruption are just playing plain lip-service at best. And the more I think about it the more I get the feeling that more politicians are going to fall victim to this scourge.

And then I asked myself why are politicians, in particular, prone to falling into this trap; and I concluded that it is

Without convictions to send a clear message that crime doesn’t pay, there can never be any hope of ridding this nation of the rampant corruption we are confronted with.

If we want to see a real change in the corruption numbers, we need to adopt punitive action reminiscent to what transpired when one of our own tycoons was prosecuted in South Africa, where they took everything he owned both here and in South Africa, turning him into a man of straw overnight! We need to send a strong message that crime doesn’t pay because if we allow this to continue unabated, we will continue to witness overnight millionaires. Culprits must be forcefully made aware that corruption does not pay.

Babe Dlamini