Whenever I talk or write about corruption I always remind my audience or readers that corruption is probably as old as mankind. I also refer my audience to Robert Bolt's play, A Man for All Seasons, set in the 16th century, in which Richard Rich's opening remark is: "But every man has his price." Written a few centuries later, Nikolai Gogol's play, The Government Inspector, cleverly satirises the human greed, stupidity and political corruption in Imperial Russia at the time.
I also remind my audience that corruption is not unique to SA. It happens in many other parts of the world. I emphasise that corruption is not confined to the public sector - it also happens in the private sector.
Then, I make my audience or readers aware that, actually, SA has an adequate and sufficient legal framework to deal with corruption. I draw their attention to the international anti-corruption treaties and agreements that SA is party to, the various provisions in the South African constitution that have a bearing on corruption (although the word corruption is not mentioned anywhere in the constitution) and also several statutes that deal with corruption including the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act 12 of 2004.
My audience would certainly be entitled to ask: So what's the problem? Why is corruption an endemic pandemic in SA despite the seemingly adequate legal framework to deal with it?
Firstly, corruption in SA has become institutionalised, systemic and normalised. And when this happens, it becomes endemic.
Secondly, our political leadership is largely responsible. You need go no further than the state capture commission to see how the political leaders of the country are responsible for the endemic corruption. Many will remember a former national spokesperson of the ANC who publicly stated: "I did not struggle to be poor." Many of our current leaders are, unfortunately, living testimony to that statement.
Then there is the issue of political accountability. The degree of accountability in a political system is largely determined by the specific features of that political system. One of the main features of the South African political system is its electoral system. As we all know, our electoral system is based on party-list proportional representation, which means parties are represented in parliament in proportion to their electoral support. What this means, in turn, is that you vote for a party and the party decides who will represent you in parliament. The result is that our politicians are accountable to no-one but themselves.
The other reason, of course, is that the law does not bite hard enough. It's one thing to have the laws; it is a completely different thing to have them properly and effectively enforced. And this brings into question the role of law enforcement agencies. There are a number of these agencies in SA that claim to be fighting corruption, or rather part of whose mandate is to fight corruption.
So we have the police (SAPS), the Hawks, the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA). Sadly, most South Africans do not trust that these agencies are able to bring corrupt officials to book. Why? Because those agencies are part of the problem. Not only are some of their members perceived to be corrupt themselves but the agencies themselves are perceived to be compromised, captured and toothless.
The most unfortunate reason for endemic corruption is that we are our own worst enemy. Yes, we the people. You need to be in town when a high-ranking ANC official is appearing in court on charges of corruption. The streets are flooded with protesting masses - not against, but in support of the accused official.
Firstly, corruption in SA has become institutionalised, systemic and normalised. And when this happens, it becomes endemic
Why? Because ours is a society with large numbers of poor, desperate and vulnerable people who are ready to accept simple black and white explanations of the causes of their problems. They then become easily manipulated to believe that corruption is a legitimate means of income redistribution and that corrupt leaders are genuine role models whose only sin is taking a stand against so-called "white monopoly capital".
What then should be done to curb or eradicate the corruption pandemic? The truth is that there is no silver bullet. However, the following suggestions would make a good starting point.
Firstly, the impunity should be brought to an end by making law enforcement more effective and more efficient. What this requires is the removal of all the rotten apples from the law enforcement bag. There is nothing as self-defeating as having corrupt law enforcement officers trying to enforce the law.
Secondly, citizens should be empowered to hold political leaders accountable. Frankly, the only way to do that is to overhaul the electoral system so that political leaders are directly accountable to specific voter constituencies. You mess up, they vote you out.
There are those who will disagree, but the role of the ruling party is critical. Unfortunately, very often when we talk about corruption in SA, many fingers point at the ruling party, both for what it has done and what it has failed to do. In his testimony before the state capture commission recently, the president of the ANC admitted that certain things had gone horribly wrong.
What the ANC (and other political parties) need to do is to appoint more competent, more honest and more decent leadership at all levels. But the ANC must also lead by example and punish the bad behaviour of its leaders and members. Senior party leaders, ministers and public servants who are corrupt, even if they are powerful in the party, must be fired and not just be begged and cajoled to step aside. Only then will the government restore the moral authority to deal credibly with corruption.
Many people have argued for an independent, dedicated permanent anti-corruption agency that was called for by the Constitutional Court in the Glenister cases. There are many countries with such agencies. I have previously argued for an anti-corruption body similar to Hong Kong's Independent Commission against Corruption, a powerful anti-corruption enforcement body responsible for the reduction of corruption in that state. SA needs such a body.
I think it is fair to say that fighting corruption is a collective responsibility in which citizens have to work in partnership with the government to eradicate the corruption pandemic. At the very least, the people must rise and say "enough is enough".
Edmund Burke captured it properly when he said, "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." There are also those who say a country is as corrupt as its citizens allow it to be. So we all have a role to play.
• Prof Mubangizi is dean, faculty of law, University of the Free State. A version of this opinion piece was presented at the 2021 UFS thought-leader webinar on May 4 2021
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