This year, International Anti-Corruption Day (Dec. 9th) comes in an interesting week for South Africans.
The country is still shaken by the current corruption scandal in the country, Nkandlagate, in which President Jacob Zuma is accused of squandering about R248 million (USD$28 million) on reconstruction of his ancestral home in Nkandla, KwaZulu-Natal. The opposition party and a growing number of angry citizens are demanding him to account for the expenses.
Just this week, the Mail and Guardian reported that, according to a report by audit firm KPMG, a striking number of benefactors were involved in paying for the reconstruction of the President’s home before he ever spent a cent on his house. The role of taxpayers’ money and other funds is still unclear.
The report’s findings contradict Zuma’s previous version in an emotional Parliament session, where he claimed to have financed the reconstruction with his family’s money and a loan.
Lawmakers accused him of trying to mislead Parliament and the COPE party opposition leader Mosiuoa Lekota stated that the President had “knowingly misled Parliament,” an act that amounts to perjury, a breach of Section 89 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa.
Also this week, Transparency International’s Corruptions Perception Index ranked South Africa 69th out of 176 countries, placing several African countries in far more flattering positions. Botswana ranked 30th, as the African country with the least corrupt public sector according to experts’ perceptions. Other African countries that ranked above South Africa were Cape Verde (39), Mauritius (43), Rwanda (50), Seychelles (51), Namibia (58), and Ghana and Lesotho (both 64).
David Lewis, of Corruption Watch, says “the bad news is that there is a long way to fall if South Africa keeps dropping in the ranks. It speaks to the level of grand corruption, day to day fraud, traffic officers, home affairs officials, licensing officials and various sorts of corruption.”
In this context, comes the International Anti-Corruption Day. The day was created by the United Nations to raise awareness about corruption, but corruption is something that South Africans are particularly aware of this week. So what does a single day mean for South Africans?
A single day will allow us to carefully assess what this country has been through in the years since the inception of democracy in 1994. We can process what corruption means for our leadership, and what it means to us as voters. Our country has ridden many waves of corruption scandals, so this day will mean a chance to think through how we can start to change the way we think about our leadership.
One day dedicated to Anti-Corruption is not going to help our awareness of this problem in South Africa, but it’s a good start. Allowing space in a day for reflection creates greater awareness and involvement from a larger sphere of society. In addition to constant monitoring of developments, we need justice to be meted out in South Africa.
— Erica Penfold
