Date: 07/12/2006
Source: Western Cape Provincial Government
Title: Rasool: Anti-Corruption Summit
Speech by Western Cape Premier Ebrahim, Rasool at the Anti-Corruption Summit, Cape Town
Corruption is a syndrome of deprivation that signifies an absence of good and solid values that are necessary to uphold moral principles in our society. Corruption also poses a serious threat to the achievement of the goals of our developmental state, which is largely focussed on wealth re-distribution and rectifying the imbalances of the past. We are hence faced with the task of rebalancing our society to rectify the imbalances of the past, but this process also creates gaps for those who are opportunistic, making our task difficult because of insufficient resources.
Fierce competition for scarce resources also creates opportunities for fraud, when those who are desperate for material change decide to take unscrupulous measures to change their quality of life, at the detriment of others who are equally in need. This anti-corruption summit therefore signifies a deep sense of commitment to control and eliminate corruption and give all our people equal opportunities.
The material level of corruption also indicates that something is wrong with the soul. In addition to this, the spiritual elements in our transitional and developmental state have been repellently neglected, as people move more and more towards accumulating material gains for themselves. In the fourth Annual Nelson Mandela Lecture president Thabo Mbeki asserted that the ascendancy of greed is smothering social cohesion and blocking mutually beneficial human solidarity. The practice of pursuing accumulation above all else and at all costs also seems to be on the rise. He also argues that this practice of accumulation is born of assimilating capitalist values that characterised accumulation under apartheid. This means that we enter into relations with other people on the basis of what we stand to gain materially from others.
Apartheid has distorted our value system to an extent where people are willing to do what ever it takes to elevate themselves, with no concern for those who would be negatively affected by their actions. Goodwill was undermined in the past, where the prosperity of one community was dependant upon the demise and destruction of the majority. For this reason our people today are embracing self-enrichment and self-preservation as a means to ensure that they have access to a better quality of life. This displacement of our value systems leaves social relations in our society in a state of confusion. It is therefore our duty to begin to find ways of creating a broad based value system that will guide us as a nation.
In his paper entitled "Towards policies that promote a caring society," Khehla Shubane posed the question as to whether attention has been given to whether South Africa has defined values around which our entire society can cohere. Establishing a collective value system will allow our people to draw from a single pool of goodwill, for moral guidance will allow us to find our commonality. Summits like this also play a critical, allowing us to see the commonality of all our values as a collective, as a nation.
Taking cognisance of the above history of deprivation does not imply that we should be lenient to offenders. We are going to fight corruption no matter what the origins of corruption are. We cannot allow the legalised distortions of the past to allow the entrenchment of a new form of legalised corruption by being lenient to offenders.
We have to strengthen all instruments in this battle against corruption. We understand what is driving people, but we need to emphasise that corruption is destructive and that it affects the entire country. Corruption in the Public Service undermines every strategic effort, such as New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA), Ikapa Elihlumayo and other government initiatives to change the quality of life of the poor. We cannot allow bandits to destroy the collective goodwill of our society because investors will not come to country that deals in corruption. We must therefore send the message that South Africa is a country that deals justly.
The fundamentals of our society are against corruption. Democracy also creates an antidote to corruption. Democracies are transparent and have all the elements that are against corruption. Corruption flourishes in non-democratic societies and remains hidden because there is no free media or any other democratic agencies that would expose its treachery. Non-democracies therefore create conditions to hide corruption. Our country may appear as more corrupt, when in fact the difference is that when compared to the previous system of authoritarian institutions, measures to hold government accountable were suppressed.
Our institutional systems are in place to deal effectively with perpetrators of corruption. Our country also generally has an environment that is intolerant to corruption. That is also a general consensus amongst our people that if you are corrupt you must be caught. There is therefore a common understanding that corruption is reprehensible. But there is a tendency of others to exploit this intolerance towards corruption, by using this tag where it is not suited, due to their desperation to prove that you presided over a corrupt government, only to ensure that they are next in line to govern. I believe that our democracy is strong enough to withstand any force.
Issued by: Office of the Premier, Western Cape Provincial Government
7 December 2006
Source: Western Cape Provincial Government
Title: Rasool: Anti-Corruption Summit
Speech by Western Cape Premier Ebrahim, Rasool at the Anti-Corruption Summit, Cape Town
Corruption is a syndrome of deprivation that signifies an absence of good and solid values that are necessary to uphold moral principles in our society. Corruption also poses a serious threat to the achievement of the goals of our developmental state, which is largely focussed on wealth re-distribution and rectifying the imbalances of the past. We are hence faced with the task of rebalancing our society to rectify the imbalances of the past, but this process also creates gaps for those who are opportunistic, making our task difficult because of insufficient resources.
Fierce competition for scarce resources also creates opportunities for fraud, when those who are desperate for material change decide to take unscrupulous measures to change their quality of life, at the detriment of others who are equally in need. This anti-corruption summit therefore signifies a deep sense of commitment to control and eliminate corruption and give all our people equal opportunities.
The material level of corruption also indicates that something is wrong with the soul. In addition to this, the spiritual elements in our transitional and developmental state have been repellently neglected, as people move more and more towards accumulating material gains for themselves. In the fourth Annual Nelson Mandela Lecture president Thabo Mbeki asserted that the ascendancy of greed is smothering social cohesion and blocking mutually beneficial human solidarity. The practice of pursuing accumulation above all else and at all costs also seems to be on the rise. He also argues that this practice of accumulation is born of assimilating capitalist values that characterised accumulation under apartheid. This means that we enter into relations with other people on the basis of what we stand to gain materially from others.
Apartheid has distorted our value system to an extent where people are willing to do what ever it takes to elevate themselves, with no concern for those who would be negatively affected by their actions. Goodwill was undermined in the past, where the prosperity of one community was dependant upon the demise and destruction of the majority. For this reason our people today are embracing self-enrichment and self-preservation as a means to ensure that they have access to a better quality of life. This displacement of our value systems leaves social relations in our society in a state of confusion. It is therefore our duty to begin to find ways of creating a broad based value system that will guide us as a nation.
In his paper entitled "Towards policies that promote a caring society," Khehla Shubane posed the question as to whether attention has been given to whether South Africa has defined values around which our entire society can cohere. Establishing a collective value system will allow our people to draw from a single pool of goodwill, for moral guidance will allow us to find our commonality. Summits like this also play a critical, allowing us to see the commonality of all our values as a collective, as a nation.
Taking cognisance of the above history of deprivation does not imply that we should be lenient to offenders. We are going to fight corruption no matter what the origins of corruption are. We cannot allow the legalised distortions of the past to allow the entrenchment of a new form of legalised corruption by being lenient to offenders.
We have to strengthen all instruments in this battle against corruption. We understand what is driving people, but we need to emphasise that corruption is destructive and that it affects the entire country. Corruption in the Public Service undermines every strategic effort, such as New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA), Ikapa Elihlumayo and other government initiatives to change the quality of life of the poor. We cannot allow bandits to destroy the collective goodwill of our society because investors will not come to country that deals in corruption. We must therefore send the message that South Africa is a country that deals justly.
The fundamentals of our society are against corruption. Democracy also creates an antidote to corruption. Democracies are transparent and have all the elements that are against corruption. Corruption flourishes in non-democratic societies and remains hidden because there is no free media or any other democratic agencies that would expose its treachery. Non-democracies therefore create conditions to hide corruption. Our country may appear as more corrupt, when in fact the difference is that when compared to the previous system of authoritarian institutions, measures to hold government accountable were suppressed.
Our institutional systems are in place to deal effectively with perpetrators of corruption. Our country also generally has an environment that is intolerant to corruption. That is also a general consensus amongst our people that if you are corrupt you must be caught. There is therefore a common understanding that corruption is reprehensible. But there is a tendency of others to exploit this intolerance towards corruption, by using this tag where it is not suited, due to their desperation to prove that you presided over a corrupt government, only to ensure that they are next in line to govern. I believe that our democracy is strong enough to withstand any force.
Issued by: Office of the Premier, Western Cape Provincial Government
7 December 2006
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