DIMINISHING HONOUR

By the time you read this, the results for the 10 contested Senate seats would have been issued. The winner could have either purchased their seat or earned it through merit. Good luck in your endeavour to differentiate between the saints and the sharks.

n an ideal world, the country’s elected officials would be people of impeccable character who won their positions through hard work and talent’, rather than political connections or money. It’s become very clear, though, that money is now the de facto criterion for holding political office. This year’s Senate election did little to dispel the poor reputation of a process that, in 2018, saw the dignity of Parliament stripped bare by a humiliating bribery-for-Senate-seats scandal.

e were left baffled and waited for the law to take its course after several Members of Parliament revealed they had accepted money from those aspiring to become senators and had seen nothing wrong with doing so. A new head of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) had been appointed not long before this, raising hopes that the new broom would take action to sift the guilty from the innocent. Instead of being the hunter, however, the ACC had its wheels deflated and rendered dormant by another arm of government, the Judiciary, where a judgment affecting the legality of the ACC’s work has not been forthcoming for years.

ow we’re told that the Executive branch is working to merge the ACC and the Human Rights Commission, but is doing so at a snail’s pace, even as the nation teeters on the verge of anarchy due to corruption. The negative consequence of ignoring this problem is the country’s falling rankings on the Corruption Perception Index (CPI). In 2017, we came in at number 85 out of 180 countries. By the year 2022, we had fallen 45 spots, placing us at number 130. This is a damning indictment on our legislators, the courts and elsewhere. If we continue down this path, by 2028 we may very well be dead last.

Strive

Of the 31 countries that make up the ‘First World’, which we strive to join, it should come as no surprise that Norway, Singapore, and Sweden are among the least corrupt in the world. The CPI is produced by Transparency International on an annual basis and it rates countries by their perceived levels of corruption. Potential investors use it as a resource, and a country in dire need of new jobs would be foolish to ignore it. Corruption, which can be simply defined as the abuse of power for personal benefit, has been institutionalised at every level of our society.

A life is lost every other day that corruption is allowed to thrive, thus time is not on our side. It should go without saying that our Legislature is the first place to look for remedies to this epidemic, which has rendered service delivery almost non-existent.   This is why it is highly imperative for our new MPs to denounce corruption. Moreso because the prevailing perception is that those who make it to Parliament only have personal interests at heart. If not curbed, this evil is causing further division between the haves and have-nots for a country that faces a mammoth task to remove another unwelcome tag of being one of the most unequal societies of the world.  

So who will fix this? Certainly not a person who paid his way to Parliament and is more concerned about recouping their campaign or lobby money. They have no interest in creating wealthy citizens. Why would they create future competitors who could unseat them? Unless we purge this evil practice from our system, it will continue to marginalise important groups such as people with disabilities (PWDs). They tried but failed to get elected to the House of Assembly or to Senate, simply because they have no financial muscle to do so.

Women have a slight advantage, given the law compelling the representation of at least one per region to add numbers that comply with the constitutional 30 per cent women requirement. What about the PWDs? Instead, we are seeing more privileged family members willing to spend an arm and a leg to occupy seats in the Legislature. At this rate, somebody will be able to buy the country. It can’t be!  Accepting the silver coin over the Bible was something King Somhlolo warned us against because it would lead people to compromise their morals in exchange for power. During the State opening of Parliament, King Mswati III has repeatedly urged lawmakers to take action, and they should set an example. As we await the list of appointees, one can only wish the new parliamentarians the best of luck in the enormous task that lies head of them. Here’s to hoping that come 2028, we don’t count them as the catalysts for sinking the Titanic to the rock bottom of the CPI rankings.

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