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Fighting Corruption in the Eastern Cape
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Speeches and Media Releases
 Premier's Office

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EASTERN CAPE PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT
 SPEECH BY  PREMIER STOFILE
ON FIGHTING CORRUPTION AT THE EASTERN CAPE ANTI-CORRUPTION SUMMIT,
18 NOVEMBER 1999




In November 1998, the Public Service Commission hosted a multi-sectoral Conference in Cape Town. The purpose of that Conference was to look 
at all facets of corruption. It looked at what it is that constituted corruption, where does corruption occur, why does it occur, what 
should be done to prevent or to combat it. The Conference went into detail in comparing what happens in South Africa as well as the rest of 
the world. Although Conference was meant to look at corruption within the Public Sector, it also surveyed the private sector. The 
conclusion could not be avoided: corruption was a scourge that pervades all sectors of our society. It is a scourge that is not confined 
just to one country. It rears its ugly head everywhere where there is an opportunity for it to thrive. The 1998 Conference came up with a 
number of proposals on how to deal with corruption.

The then President of the R.S.A., Dr Mandela had this to say in opening the Conference: "It is perfectly correct to assert that all this 
(corruption) was spawned by apartheid. No amount of self-induced amnesia will change this reality of history. But it is also a reality of 
the present that among the new cadres in various levels of government you find individuals who are as corrupt as if not more than those 
they found in government."

I am giving this pr%cis of the Cape Town Conference to emphasise the fact that today we do not want to repeat what has already been done. 
If we simply went through the motions of lamenting the widespread nature of corruption in our society and came with no concrete ways to 
solve or to deal with it, then this Summit would have been nothing less than a blissful talk shop. We want a concrete programme of action 
for the whole of society from here. A programme that will involve the Government and the organs of civil society. In the latter we include 
Trade Unions, Religions Communities, NGOs, CBOs, Traditional Leaders and all. This is so because it became clear in Cape Town that only a 
strategy that involves the whole of society can succeed in fighting corruption.

Modern Criminologists and sociologists as well as Psychologists are of the view that the great euphoria over the removal of oppressive laws 
and apartheid was succeeded by a great confusion because the mechanisms of social control, which should draw a line between individual 
freedom and social chaos, are not firmly in place. Corrupt and criminal elements of society are exploiting this moral confusion, they say. 
(Conklin 1990; Brown, Esbensen and Geis 1998; Haskel and Yablonsky 1986; Bartollas 1997 etc) These academics seem to be restating the same 
views held by Plato who believed that "Democracy is a stage in which liberty is likely to grow at the expense of order, as people tend to 
do what they like without regarding themselves morally and socially bound to any set rules." (Pace and Style, 1983:109).

All these seem to point in one direction: corruption and crime thrive where the moral... fibre of a society is either thin or has been 
corroded.

Unprofessional conduct in the Public sector is probably the immediately noticeable or spoken - about factor which is, I suggest, a 
reflection of a deeper problem. We are challenged to decide whether to focus on the apparent or on the real problem. Either way, we have to 
come up with strategies and tactics that will save us all from a venom that seems bent on consuming us all.

President Mbeki argued in the Conference last year (whilst still Deputy President) that "virtue and good ethical behaviour in the public 
sector are not inherent to the minds of public officials." And so he argued for a perennial interrogation through a code of conduct." Is 
the existence of a code of conduct enough? I think not. If we accept what Plato says and what the intellectuals quoted above say, we have 
to confront the question: Were we too hasty in entrenching human-rights sensitive laws ahead of a society which hardly understood our 
intentions or was not equipped to deal with the situation? Should we not have stabilised society first and then take it gradually to our 
ideal destination? I know very few want to confront this question for fear of being labelled as retrogressing to an ethos of trampling 
Human Rights. How then do we deal with the realities that continue to confront us despite our liberal constitution? This Summit must 
address this without fear. Batho Pele, Code of Conduct, Laws and Regulations to deal with misconduct, we have them all. But we also know 
how protracted the process is to prove misdemeanour. The Public gets hysterical when corruption has been identified. They equally cry foul 
once people are suspended from their work whilst investigations continue.

Many people argue that our Justice Laws are not adequate. Others (especially from the Justice sector) blame the investigators of poor 
training which leads to acquitting criminals "with a sad heart" as one friend told me. Whilstle-blowers complain that nothing gets done 
when they report criminals. In fact, they argue, those they report to end up exposing them to the criminals. Singapore and Malaysia are 
usually referred to as some of the countries that have dealt effectively with corruption and crime. But compare their constitutions with 
ours.

Whatever we come up with, the beneficiary must be the poor people who are desperately in need of the services and resources that are being 
squandered. They are the ultimate victims of corruption and of being patronised by ambitious mischief-makers who only want to make a penny 
or two from them. A society where opportunists and the corrupt prosper, where the innocent murmur because they too are awaiting their turn, 
is bad news for any country. Then the witches in Macbeth would be correct in saying "fair is foul and foul is fair." Fortunately in this 
Province many have been quite vocal about corruption. Now is the time to go beyond the talking about it. Let us do something about it. If 
we have been doing something, we have to review how we have been doing it.

The success of this Summit will not be judged by how many Resolutions we pass. It will not be judged by the language of such Resolutions. 
These may raise the curiosity of the comfortable and commentators. But for the poorest of the poor, only a marked change in their lives in 
the next century will be the litmus paper.

When the resources and services due to them reach them, this will be success. When they cease being a topic for discussion and objects for 
others who purport to represent them, this Summit will have been a success. When the cult of the individual is subsumed to the total good, 
we will be on track to rebuilding the moral values of our society, "On the way to a better 21st Century". This is not any single sector's 
monopoly. It is our responsibility. All of us together. We can win. We must win.


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