Corruption Cancer Affects All

The planned march against corruption in the public and private sectors deserves the support of all sensible South Africans. Speaking at the launch of an anti-corruption initiative three years ago, Minister Jeff Radebe said: "Corruption must be declared our enemy as apartheid was the common enemy for all justice-loving citizens." I agreed with him then and his statement holds true today. It is against this background that one is concerned that the march reportedly hangs in the balance, after one union which is a major supporter and organiser received permission from Nedlac - the government, labour and business negotiating chamber - for it to take place at a later date. One is not privy to the rationale behind the Nedlac decision, but it would be unfortunate if the fight against corruption were to be turned into a political football of sorts. Corruption is a cancer that affects the whole society. It is not unique to one sector of soceity and, therefore, it requires collaboration from the government, business and civil society to fight it.

Yet the narrative that has developed around corruption in our country is that it is something that is taking place in the public sector only. However, we have seen too many private sector scandals to fall for the falsehood that corruption is something that happens only in the public sector. When private sector companies collude to fix the price of bread, that is corruption. Corruption is rife in both the public and private sectors and it is time that all South Africans, from all walks of life, united to confront this demon that is destroying our country and holding us back. Recently, we saw a corporate scandal of gigantic proportions when leading car manufacturer VW was caught cheating on emission tests in the US. There are many which try to cheat the system, daily, be it in the form of under-declaring income or any other malfeasance. But because of a seemingly high tolerance for white-collar crime in our society, we fail to see corporate misdemeanors for what they are - corruption. I was, therefore, happy when I learnt that the march would be aimed at protesting against corruption in both the public and private sectors.

The sooner South Africans change their perceptions about corruption as a uniquely public sector problem and stand up to fight it, as a collective, the better. Sadly, the view that corruption is more alive in the public sector that it is in the private sector is sometimes informed by racial prejudice. The private sector, being largely white, as compared to the public sector which is dominated by blacks, is assumed to be free of corruption. But greed, which is one of the contributing factors to corruption, is a human condition. No race group is more greedy than the next one. Private sector corruption is as bad as public sector corruption. Of course, in the case of the private sector, the affected parties are largely shareholders and customers. However, in the public sector corruption affects all citizens. For every rand lost to corruption, the delivery of services to citizens is compromised. Besides, corruption eats into the wealth of the country. Since the dawn of democracy, South Africa is said to have lost just under R1 trillion due to corruption.

The money could have been spent on houses for the poor, schools, water and sanitation; providing electricity; creating new jobs and building a sustainable economy. One is not sure how that figure was arrived at but it is a pretty big figure and one can only imagine how much the country would have achieved if those resources had been properly channelled. While we should all be concerned about corruption in the country, it is somewhat encouraging to learn that South Africa has seen a five-point improvement in the global Corruption Perceptions Index between 2013 and last year. We are now ranked 67 out of 175 countries, an improvement from 72 in 2013. This is still too high on the ladder and we must aspire to reach a ranking far below that. We appeal to those joining the march to respect the rights of those who will not be participating and to refrain from violence and destroying property. We hope the march will be peaceful.