FIGHT CORRUPTION FROM ELECTION STAGE

Sir,

Every five years people start campaigning for Parliament seats, by doing good deeds for their communities. But, the elections have become more of a transactional political affair. Anyone without money is guaranteed to lose with a huge margin. In recent years, we saw people being literally given E200 notes to vote for certain candidates. Some were given blankets and food stuffs.

Ruined

The Elections and Boundaries Commission was informed about such incidents, but it was apparently toothless to deal with it. It has ruined the Tinkhundla System of Governance to the point that we now need a serious restructuring of this system. The implication is deep because it means we have in government and Parliament people who have the propensity to commit corruption. How can we expect them to fight corruption if they earned Parliament seats through bribery. These are the very people who are supposed to form select committees to probe corruption. They produce reports with names that are censored for unsatisfactory reasons. My point is not that we should go for multiparty system, because even there corruption can thrive.

Learnt

We have learnt this from South Africa’s situation, where billions are spend on trying to fight corruption and State capture. So, the best thing is to tighten screws in our own system. We must come to a point where people pay bribes but do not get elected. This way, they will stop the habit and look for legal means to earn a Parliament seat. In the past elections, we elected people who are even too shy to speak in public. That is the kind of Parliamentarians we made. Some are clueless about government processes and politics in general. In recent years, we elected people who were not politicians but development officers.

This was far better than what we have now. I would have asked Members of Parliament (MPs) to move a motion for an overhaul of the Tinkhundla system, but such a motion will never be moved because the current state of the system is good for the MPs and Senators that we have. Last year, police said they would investigate the election process for senators, but such an investigation was a still born baby. How was it going to succeed because the culprits had deep pockets and an insatiable appetite for power. If this process continues, the next elections will be doomed and people will start revolting. At worst, those calling for multiparty will started to have their voices heard.

NC Vilane

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