Drive to curb graft
IT IS commonplace that a nation is judged by the way it treats its vulnerable members AND children. There is consensus that, as a nation, we are failing in the discharge of this obligation. How do we know this? The answer lies, to a large extent, in the re-emergence of civil society formations all over the country.
In South Africa we have had a rich history of NGOs and civil society formations, at the forefront of political and societal changes, in some instances, even at the expense of being labelled “anti-revolutionaries”.
Despite this, citizens are beginning to reassert themselves.
Corruption Watch (CW) has released its annual report for 2016, and I wish to deal with some aspects of it:
At least 11 reports per day are received by CW.
There have been 15000 whistle-blowers since 2012, many at risk of losing their jobs and reputation.
There is a growing intol erance of corr uption, both in the private and public sectors. Consequently, we have seen an unprecedented formation of civil society organs such as the Right to Know Campaign, Equal Education, CW and, in our case, the Active Citizens Movement (ACM).
Of the 4 391 complaints received by CW, 16% were in Education, 7% in road trafficking, 6% in licensing, 6% in immigration and 5% in housing.
On the nature of the abuse of power, corruption: 28%, bribery: 24% and procurement: 17%.
Perhaps the most significant is that the highest number of cases pertained to corruption in schools.
I return to my initial contention and maintain corruption is not only an “act”. It is an attitude and a state of mind.
Accused persons in the public and private sectors are increasingly second guessing the judiciary and Chapter 9 Institutions. This action is
“Lawfare”, as described by Judge Albie Sachs.
The most disconcerting is that this “wasted” money is depriving our poor and children of receiving any relief. What should be done? We must support the signing of the Protected Disclosures Amendment Bill, which affords whistle-blowers additional protection and widens the scope of who can whistle-blow.
As we have seen with the appointment of the public protector, we should demand that the appointment of ALL public representatives be done publicly.
We have to mobilise the citizenry to:
Expose corruption at all levels;
Reject corruption;
Build networks of corruption fighters;
Ensure that those implicated in corruption face the might of the law;
Name and shame corrupt officials;
Participate in public campaigns; and
Gather data that will assist in the prosecution of corrupt officials. How do we do this? There are various campaigns that we must join and support, as active participating citizens.
The first is the “No More Tjo Tjo”, which is aimed at addressing bribery on our roads.
The second is Transparency International’s “Unmask the Corrupt” Campaign.
The third, “My Hands are Clean Campaign”, encourages the public to come clean on any corrupt activities they have engaged in.
Fourth, the “Loss of Principle Campaign” addresses the corruption in schools. Here, it must be noted that of the reported 1 431 cases at CW, 90% implicated school principals.
We must ensure that honest, committed people are elected at all levels.
This discourse includes other identifying values that should be used in electing officials at all levels.
With respect to the private sector, formulating anti-corruption programmes and reporting on these, as a matter of course, ensuring organisational transparency, and country by country reporting of fraud and corruption is key. The bedrock of our nation Education is the cornerstone of any culture or nation. We have to be vigorously involving schools and school governing bodies to be compliant in ensuring that their primary responsibility is the delivery of full service to our children. CW has published a guide to school governing body elections, which is accessible on its website. I urge stakeholders to access this document.
We, as the Active Citizens Movement, are fully subscribed to the values and campaigns as articulated in the report.
Part of our constitutional mandate is to:
Strengthen South Africa’s participatory democracy;
Engage all sectors of society, and
Expose poor delivery, corruption and mismanagement wherever they may occur or are suspected to occur and undertake measures to achieve this objective.
Join us in our drive for clean governance and a caring people centred-state.