CORRUPTION RIFE

Sir,

Recently it was reported that Eswatini loses E91million through corruption. One of the things that are glaringly obvious is the attitude of government when it comes to tackling corruption. Despite the lip-service and rhetoric we are accustomed to, there appears to be no political will to addressing this scourge. And as long as our attitudes are like that, we are not likely to see any meaningful change in our detection and controlling the level of corruption in the country.

We all know that government has influence over the work of its departments, and as such, the notion that government’s hands are tied in some matters must be rejected with the impunity it deserves. Government is not being asked to directly probe those matters bordering on corruption, but it can facilitate their probing by the relevant anti-corruption agencies. In the absence of consistency in the application of rules to deal with corruption, this country cannot expect to put up a good fight against this scourge.

From a philosophical, theological and moral perspective, corruption is defined as the spiritual or moral impurity or deviation from an ideal. We actually do not need legislation or fancy codes of conducts that will never be put in place to tell us that a certain conduct is wrong. Even before the PAC came on board, we knew that bribery, extortion etc were wrong. Corruption is rampant in the country; and it makes one shudder when no action is taken. The country is besieged with corruption, and is now experiencing what is termed systemic or endemic corruption where certain corrupt practices have formed part of our every day lives. This scourge requires decisive action and changed attitudes in dealing with it.

Transparency International publishes an annual Corruption Perception Index (CPI), it would be interesting for the country’s politicians to refer to this and see how we fare. I dismiss the notion and the unrealistic objective to have corruption eradicated because it will never be eradicated. Countries that mean business in dealing with it intensify their fights against it through improved detection, investigation and getting perpetrators or corruptors convicted. But paramount to this fight, are attitudes of people that must change from being abdicators to actors.

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