Tough year over, but more difficulties ahead

AS WE painfully wrap up 2020, an annus horribilis that wreaked havoc and pushed struggling economies like ours into the abyss, we need not forget that another more terrible and painful year awaits us. That is like jumping from the frying pan into the fire.

Looking back, 2020 started, like most years, on a promising note and merely three months into it we had to face Covid-19. At first we thought it was going to be a pandemic that we were going to conquer within weeks, but it turned out that the rest of the year would be spent fighting the invisible enemy.

The evil forces among us saw an opportunity to loot the funds that were made easily available under Covid-19 emergency procurement.

It was where we saw the politically connected and their proxies dishing out state tenders to procure personal protective gear at shockingly inflated prices.

Some of these alleged looters did not stop there; they went on to dip their crooked hands into the UIF (unemployment insurance fund) cookie jar. They claimed money for bogus employees and some of the claimants were even dead.

Thanks to a joint effort by the country’s law enforcement agencies like the Hawks and SIU, working with the Office of the Auditor-General, some were arrested, some lost their ill-gotten wealth and properties were seized.

But is the worst, in terms of corruption and looting, over? The answer is no.

Naturally, every crisis presents an opportunity for looters and the same looters are always strategically way ahead of law enforcement agencies.

As such, and as a new Covid-19 variant has reportedly come into the picture, the lockdown would be extended and there would be more misery for the masses.

What needs to be done?

The media, as a public watchdog and as an entity that blew the whistle on the looting of Covid-19 funds and lobbied for the arrest and prosecution of looters, needs to be more vigilant than before.

It must expose the rot and do so in an impartial manner, instead of sparing some holy cows and only exposing those it perceives to be generally bad.

The fight could be better waged if the country’s civic organisations would stop being an extension of political parties and help in the fight against the corrupt without taking sides.