South Africa must adopt an anti-corruption culture that is taught at kindergarten right through to institutions of higher learning, Public Service and Administration Minister Richard Baloyi said on Thursday.
“We must create a public awareness that makes it anti-South African to be corrupt,” he said at an anti-corruption business forum in Johannesburg, hosted by Business Unity South Africa.
Since corruption undermined the rule of law, it was incumbent on the business community to join forces with the government to combat it.
Corruption could stunt economic development in the country as it would discourage foreign direct investment.
South Africa ranked 54th in Transparency International’s 2010 Corruption Perceptions Index released on Tuesday.
The country had a score of 4,5. Botswana was best of all African countries at 33rd with a score of 5,8. The closer the score is to 10, the less corrupt a country is perceived to be.
Baloyi said this indicated South Africa had a growing corruption problem. It had the infrastructure to combat corruption, but it was not being properly used.
“Corruption could collapse the economy in ways only realised once the collapse has taken place.”
‘Corruption watch’
In September, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) revealed that it planned to set up a “corruption watch”, warning of a “full-blown predator state” developing if action is not taken.
It also lashed out at the private sector and “tenderpreneurs”, who have infiltrated the African National Congress.
Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said this “powerful” anti-corruption institution of civil society will comprise a team of lawyers, accountants and auditors, who will conduct preliminary investigations and process these with the relevant authorities.
“Corruption is a cancer that threatens the foundations of our democracy. It occurs in the public and private sectors, even within our unions,” Vavi said.
Vavi said the roots of corruption lay in the private sector, which is and has always been run on the principle of “me first” and “an injury to one is an opportunity to another”.
“But this ideology is corrupting our state and even our revolutionary movement, as people use public office as a route to personal wealth,” he said, pointing to ministers and officials who are in business to make money, and have raised an inevitable conflict of interest.
“The danger always exists that in formulating policy in Parliament, a provincial legislature or municipal council, they will be guided by the impact this will have on their businesses rather than the broader public interest,” he said. — Sapa