Africa urged to fight corruption

AFRICA should cooperate and mobilise resources in the fight against corruption which has become a cancer undermining development, African Union Regional Delegate to Southern Africa, Dr Leopold Auguste Ngomo said here.

Addressing delegates and the media on the ways of reporting corruption through investigative journalism, Dr Ngomo said the fight against corruption creates a sustainable path to Africa’s transformation.

This, he said, could only be achieved if the media and other stakeholders collaborate at the national, regional and international level.

“We are here today, not only to refresh or to receive more skills and competencies, but also to network. Because the fight against this terrible disease, has really pulled us down and seriously undermined our development and our future. We cannot be able to win or reduce it in isolation,” he said.

“It is only within our closer borders that we can, alone, fight efficiency, be safe and stronger. We have the mandate to represent the African Union and to build capacity of Southern Africans,” he said.

The workshop which was organised by Intelligent Africa and funded by the African Union was attended by media organisations from 12 Southern Africa countries namely Comoros, Malawi, Eswatini, Seychelles, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, DR Congo, Mauritius, Botswana, Zambia, Tanzania and Namibia.

Southern African media, Dr Ngomo said, should have the spirit of Pan Africanism.

“We are at the time of high communication. Everyone wants to communicate, to push information, and we are being flooded with every kind of information. But we gradually started to realise that much of the information is oriented and formatted by Western mega media,” he said.