Political influence on the block

The daily barrage of media revelations about financial chicanery involving the majority of our politicians and leaders graphically illustrates that political influence in our democracy has become an auctioneers’ paradise.

Political bargain hunters are the new elite who roam the corridors of power to enrich themselves from illgotten wealth, knowing very well that their crimes will never be unmasked because the rot is so deep.

We are on the verge of begging for an International Monetary Fund loan to balance our budget and finance the government.

The ruling elite lack the kind of philosophical ideological vision and orientation that is committed to developing a progressive society.

SA is where it is because the political system is self-perpetrating and no party is accountable to anyone except a coterie of people who dominate all decisions. Unless the political system is accountable, going after individual cases of corruption will achieve little.

Corruption is a complex economic, political and social problem that can only be tackled through an approach that is multi-dimensional and multifaceted.

It has been said that a government “big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have”. Corruption has become allpervasive. There is barely any sphere of social, political and economic activity that is free from graft, fraud and corruption of some kind.

The money that we will be forced to borrow will be so astronomical that it will take two or three generations to settle this monumental debt.

Farouk Araie, via e-mail