Government riddled with corruption

IT IS A VERY sad day in South African history when our once beloved liberation movement has created a culture of greed, corruption and criminals who are prepared to kill for a tender.

What went wrong? Mandela, to quote an article he wrote on March 2, 2001, said: “Little did we suspect that our own people, when they got a chance, would be as corrupt as the apartheid regime. That is one of the things that has really hurt us.”

I, together with many others, lost many friends and family members in the Struggle in which they fought for equality and the improvement of the lives of the poorest of the poor.

Sadly, it seems our Struggle stalwarts died in vain because the present leaders have no vision or the mental capacity of our previous Struggle heroes.

It is a disgrace that these power-hungry politicians and so-called comrades behave in such an inhumane way by creating rich legacies for their friends and families at the expense of the poor. Every single SOE and government department has this cancer of corruption and criminality spreading with no cure in sight.

It was shocking to hear that Eskom cannot investigate corrupt activities because investigators’ lives are being threatened. Then how do we expect our lights to be on, and how do we expect foreign investments if this type of mafia-style tactics is prevalent across all government institutions?

Although the president says that he cannot interfere with the criminal justice system, there seems to be huge corruption within the security cluster as well. Therefore, the NPA cannot effect any arrest. So what do we do as law-abiding citizens of this country: sit back and watch these hooligans destroy our country?

The president, together with the rest of the nation, knows who these thugs are who are bringing the ANC into disrepute, but because these criminals have the protection of the political elite, they become the untouchables and hence we are a mafia state.

History will judge President Ramaphosa as a president who risks his life, position and legacy for the elimination of corruption so that the lives of the poor could be improved or as a president who sat in this position and did nothing to improve the lives of the poor.

YUGEN MOODLEY | Adec leader Durban