The ANC risks losing power if it cannot halt corruption
among its members, the Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation warned on
Saturday.
“For the state, the window of opportunity is closing to
demonstrate the courage and the muscle to act decisively and hold the culprits
in its ranks accountable, regardless of who they are,” read a statement from
foundation CEO Piyushi Kotecha.
“If it closes we must brace ourselves for turbulence. For,
in democracies, when the people are ready, governments change.”
The statement came a day after the foundation joined the SA
Council of Churches, the Nelson Mandela Foundation and other civil society
organisations in condemning alleged corruption in Covid-19 emergency
procurement deals.
The organisations said they were consulting academics and
legal experts “to mobilise a comprehensive societal response against
corruption”.
This would include the reopening of the “unburdening panel”
for whistle-blowers and public servants to report corruption, “as well as a
national call for the public to demonstrate their outrage at not only the
looting, but the lack of consequences for it”.
Kotecha's follow-up message said the latest bout of alleged
corruption “shames SA and poisons opportunity to reduce economic inequality”.
It added: “The allegations that SA’s defences against
Covid-19 have been turned into business opportunities for the politically
connected are a massive setback for the country’s integrity and post-pandemic
economic landscape.”
The CEO recalled a warning by Archbishop Emeritus Tutu in
1998 that “there is no way in which you can assume that yesterday’s oppressed
will not become tomorrow’s oppressor. We have seen it happen all over the
world, and we shouldn’t be surprised if it happens here.”
Kotecha bemoaned the “culture of impunity” around
corruption.
“Impunity flourishes in the absence of enforcement. None of
the big fish and few little ones ever get caught. The fact that our coronavirus
defences have been looted is not a big surprise,” she said.
“SA seems stuck in a generational rut. Corrupt leaders have
been tolerated largely out of strong emotional bonds to [the ANC] and its group
of exceptional leaders who ultimately prevailed in the long struggle against
apartheid.”
The need for new leaders who were less encumbered by the
past was “glaringly obvious”. But society as a whole needed to “drag the
corrupt from the dark corners they hide in, into the light”.
Kotecha said: “Report the traffic officer asking you for a
bribe, report the official who asks for commission when purchasing goods for
government, report the company producing substandard goods and services ...
build a culture of outrage and intolerance.”
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