JFK cleaned up state rot
uMzinto
WE NOW have a new political kid on the block, the African Democratic Change (ADeC) party launched by outspoken former member of Parliament, Makhosi Khoza.
Khoza said her party’s role was to take the people of South Africa out of the dark cloud of shame, shattered dreams and aspirations inflicted on them by the ANC.
I am of the view that Khoza will play a vital role at the 2019 election and this will be a serious problem for the ANC.
Khoza has earned the confidence and respect of South Africans across the racial spectrum.
She is a firebrand of a politician and may make a good leader, and change South Africa’s political landscape – she may just fill the vacuum of change by taking away a certain percentage of ANC votes.
It was said Julius Malema’s EFF party would not make it to Parliament, but he and a band of men and women did.
Why won’t Khoza do it?
Cape Town
IN 1961 US President John F Kennedy sent a special message to the Congress on Conflict-of-Interest Legislation and Problems of Ethics in Government, which should be of great interest to us.
He began by observing: “No responsibility of government is more fundamental than the responsibility of maintaining the highest standards of ethical behaviour by those who conduct the public business.”
He underscored this by stating: “There can be no dissent from the principle all officials must act with unwavering integrity, absolute impartiality and complete devotion to the public interest.”
He understood, being the consummate politician that he was, that the principle he was enunciating had to be “followed not only in reality but in appearance” as well, because perception in politics is everything.
Clearly, “the basis of effective government is public confidence” and as soon as “that confidence is endangered”, because ethical standards have faltered, law and order will break down and criminality become widespread.
That is what we are now witnessing. There’s something so rotten in the state of South Africa at present that the good are under perpetual siege from those who are greedy, self-seeking, violent and lacking in all moral scruples.
Kennedy’s dictum for believable government, made 56 years ago, will therefore resonate with most of us in South Africa today. Venal conduct is everywhere. The public and the private sectors are infected and afflicted. Big global names such as KPMG, SAP, McKinsey and most recently Steinhoff have had their reputations besmirched in the same way as President Jacob Zuma, several ministers and many senior state officials.
Integrity and probity, so highly prized in the Mandela presidency, are now a faded memory and abandoned aspirations. In the circumstances, far-reaching laws which uphold ethics in government, insist on greater transparency and compel visible accountability have to be promulgated for the protection of the state and its people.
What was a growing challenge to the Americans 56 years ago is now a steep challenge for us too.
Our future is at stake. Collusion, conspiracy and corruption have, to use Kennedy’s words, “gravely multiplied the risk of conflicts of interest” and made state capture open season for all.
We too have to respond with extremely tough laws to keep venality and abuse of power in check and stop every future president from becoming a “constitutional delinquent”.