Issued by African National Congress - Parliament
28 May 2003
The importance of fighting corruption at all levels and all sectors, as a struggle to create a better life for all in South Africa
Madame Speaker and the Honorable House
The international community is plagued by a demon of corruption, which is an act of intentional committal of an act or the neglect thereof, with the motive being to make a material gain from such an activity or inactivity. Such an activity or inactivity always result in a situation that it is those involved in the transaction that benefit in that exchange, at the expense of the ordinary people.
Corruption is an evil we all need to internalize the obligation to fight. This country and the World cannot afford a situation where we pass the buck over to others to fight it on our behalf. We all need to soil our hands in dealing with this scourge. In does not matter how strong and capable some organizations and individuals are in concealing their own contribution to the prevalence of corruption. It does not matter how strategically located some organizations and individuals are, to claim no responsibility to fight corruption and only take the softer stance of acting as trumpet beaters on acts of corruption. It does not matter how a particular sector or level can claim its least contribution. The fact is that the buck stops with all of us as individuals, as political parties, as public sector, as private sector and as a broader civil society, and it is a misplaced debate to waste time on point-scoring engagements in dealing with issues of corruption, rather we should embrace strategies at our disposal to fight it.
We need to fight corruption because it robs the people of justice deserved. In a situation where corruption is rife, the ordinary people are deprived of their rightful claim to effective service delivery by organs of State, as more often than not, we find situations of collusion between the perpetrators and those who are in authority to service the people. We must not fool ourselves that the masses are not aware of their expectations on clean governance. All corrupt activities that are taking place in the World do so in an environment where people are aware of how bad it is to indulge in or to be a victim of corrupt practices. It is for that reason that when the perpetrators are brought to book, the communities celebrate the move, except for those who stand to benefit in a situation of total collapse of the system in the face of corruption. All responsible individuals and organizations will emulate Allan Kaiser, an assistant United States attorney, who is quoted in the New York Times of the 10th April 2003, after the conviction of four former Miami police officers, on charges of conspiring, to have said: "This verdict shows that justice has been provided for the community" and that " This is another step in rebuilding the bond between the public and the police".
Corruption erodes the economic base for effective service delivery and it robs the poor most. Let us imagine what may ultimately become of countries of the World if the pace of corruption may not be drastically reduced. There would be a total chaos and the complete destruction of the economy. Those in charge at the private and public institutions would thrive at the expense of the disadvantaged poor. We cannot afford this state of affairs hence we are fighting the scourge.
Corruption has a potential of reversing the gains we have scored as the people and the country. We have emerged as a people-centered and people-driven democracy. In talking about service delivery we are putting people first, and in the process of working towards the realization of the peoples' goal, we are placing the responsibility to all of us. We work as team. It is for that reason that we are then saying that even in the process of fighting corruption, all of us should be involved because the contrary is that we all get hi-jacked into the scourge. We have worked so hard to build this democracy and we cannot for any price compromise it at the face of corruption. Once more, the buck stops with us, and us all.
Madame Speaker;
In our endeavor to fight this scourge, we are also confronted with a challenge of answering all those sectors who would like to know as to how much corruption there is in this country, and as to whether it is on the rise or decline relative to the past.
Several factors suggest that we should not make an attempt to answer this question, one of which is the fact that it is not possible to compare what you know with what is buried in the secretive history of Apartheid books. Today we can speculate as to our standing in dealing with acts of corruption because there is transparency, even in dealing with areas that are sensitive for the Defence of the State, its people and the borders, such as the arms acquisition. In the past, only a handful of Apartheid masterminds would deal with such issues, and the public would not know anything about it.
The second factor is that the past system could justify acts of corruption for as long as it would sustain Apartheid. It was therefore accepted as a normal practice.
The third factor is that corruption is a complex concept to define, and therefore it makes it difficult to talk in quantitative terms as to how much of it is here or there, or how much of it was here or there. This point was also highlighted in the current Country Corruption Assessment Report that has just been tabled in Parliament as the work of the South African Government and the United Nations Southern Africa's Regional Office on Drugs and Crime. The former South African Public Protector, in giving his final decision where the Government was cleared of allegations of nepotism submitted by the then National Party in 1999, warned that, whereas there is no trace of corruption in the allegation, there is a need to tighten our dealings of governance so that not even the minutest manifestation of corruption should creep into our systems. This is another point to illustrate the complexity of the understanding of corruption.
The fourth factor is the fact that, in the absence of factual evidence on corruption, the only prevalence indicator is perception, and this differs from one agent to another. In a situation where you have a hostile media, more acts of corruption are suggested to be taking place, and the agents know that they are not compelled to provide details of their claims. Some of those claims, baseless as they may be, are damaging to the State, and investors would always consider the internal stability of any country before they can decide to do business with. What is more frustrating is to realize that even people who have taken an oath to promote the Republic of South Africa and to oppose anything that will harm the Republic, like some Honourable members of this House, are part of the negative posturing of our country.
Madame Speaker;
Our argument that it is complex and not advisable to try and answer some questions on corruption does not suggest that we are saying that there is no corruption in this country. We know it is there, and that it manifests itself in different ways, such as bribery, embezzlement, fraud, favoritism, nepotism and other forms of corruption.
Further more, the fact that we have acts of corruption today does not suggest that the Government is doing nothing about the issue, and it is known that, confronted with this scourge, the South African Government initiated a National anti-corruption campaign, which culminated into a National anti-corruption Summit, and ultimately the anti-corruption Strategy in the Public Service, as well as the establishment of the Anti-corruption Forum.
The fact that we are dealing with the fight against corruption and we want everybody to know about that, Madame Speaker, does not suggest that we are complacent about our strategies and the actions we are taking. It is for that reason that we are continuously engaging the topic so that we keep it alive and keep on engaging with it, for it is an evil we need to uproot.
Our participation in the project Country Corruption Assessment with the United Nations, is an indicative of the fact that we always seek to find a baseline position as to the question of corruption, and the Report that has been submitted to Parliament should be understood in that contexts, so that, based on it as providing a baseline position, we should, as individuals and parties be always alive to questions of corruption and seek to fight it. I believe the Portfolio Committee on Public Service and Administration, after considering the Corruption Country Assessment Report, will lead a process to get Parliament to consider some practical steps to continue our fight against corruption.
A Bill is also being considered so that we can strengthen our legislative instrument to fight the scourge of corruption.
In conclusion, Madame Speaker we want to say in our struggle against corruption, that "Hi ta twa hi rhambu ku tshoveka". As the ANC we resolved at our 51st National Conference, that we need to intensify the struggle against corruption, and we are prepared to make a call to all the people of South Africa that we should take the heat of corruption to the perpetrators, irrespective of who they are. The ANC is prepared to lead by example.
In this context, we want to urge all Members of Parliament that we should use our Constituency offices to assist people to understand their effective role in the fight against corruption.