Corruption

Melanie Veness:  PCB CEO

Corruption is the cancer spreading nefariously through the venous system of our young democracy, draining all vitality and promise. It’s destroying hope, and we must treat it aggressively, before it destroys our promising future.  A bit dramatic, you say? Perhaps not dramatic enough.

There is a lot of lip service being paid to the rooting out of corruption, but we’ve yet to see people high up actually being held accountable (and I mean, really accountable – not the guilty-get out of jail free and play golf kind of justice, which does nothing to restore faith in our leadership).

But stopping corruption is far easier said than done, and I can understand the hesitancy to act at a local level, because it takes a lot of guts to take action in the first place, and in the second, the evil tentacles of corruption wind their way throughout our public service system and you’re never really sure who’s connected to whom.

Take for instance the situation in our capital city. Our once-well run city was run in to the ground financially, with no resources being used to maintain our infrastructure and very little effort expended on delivering services, so where did all the money go? A few years back when the warning signs were blinking, the Scorpions swooped, blue lights flashing. They shut down City Hall, confiscated  computers, and then – nothing. Some months later, we had the spectacular implosion. The city was placed under administration, and the appointed administrator road into town with all guns blazing – he reported that the city officials and leadership were corrupt – people would be held accountable, he promised. The Executive Committee was dissolved and the senior officials were suspended.

Then plans were put in place to recover as much money from the private sector as possible to get the municipality financially liquid again, and then, nothing.  Some of the politicians have found well paying jobs elsewhere in government and the officials have all sat at home for months being paid their exorbitant salaries. Some have “resigned”. Where is the accountability? Should we be surprised when the NPA declines to prosecute?

I’m pretty sure that I, like most citizens, only have the slightest inkling of what’s going on  - we just get a little glimpse every now and then. It’s like the hand from the Addams Family that appears suddenly, unexpectantly, hovers, before disappears again. To my mind, if we are serious about sorting out the rot, we need to do it from the top. We need a South African Eliot Ness – we need a gutsy and strong leader with zero tolerance for fraud and corruption, who has little regard for “political sensitivities” and who isn’t afraid to act, and time is of the essence.

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