Why do we have so much corruption and fraud?

In a word – Pride.

We have lost our sense of pride in self, place, culture and history.

Our moral compass has been bumped and no longer points true North as we leave organised religion in droves and replace that with the cult of Tabloid Entertainment.

We are addicted to the instant endorphins that we get from successive Shock, Gasp, Horror revelations.

We revel in the other person’s misfortune.

We are addicted to our screens and no longer engage meaningfully with our fellow humans.

The shocking corruption, abuse and fraud that happens around us daily and that is fed to us instantaneously through our screens has robbed us of it’s power to meaningfully galvanise us into positive action.

Our every reaction to any form of challenge is one of abuse as we attack our fellow human and NOT the message.

We have become immune to wave after wave of allegations of misconduct by the very people that we vote into power.

We have lost our ability to recognise true leaders who will put all the citizens of our country first as we flirt with the party political pronouncements by parties that now NEED the votes in order to stay in ‘gainful employment’.

We have been let down by wave after wave of political leaders more interested in bashing each other in order to cling to some modicum of power RATHER THAN knuckling down, joining hands and making South Africa work to it’s fullest potential.

We had all the makings of an incredible nation in 1994. The newborn was washed clean and could get a fresh start. Foreign countries were beating a path to our door. BUT, some had bad intentions along with briefcases full of cash. Revolutionaries who had freed us from tyranny became an easy target for unscrupulous businessmen with ready cash and the first blow was dealt when South Africa joined the Arms Race. We should have joined the Education Race. We could have had the highest state of education in the world with the money spent and stolen and bribed on the Arms Deal!

The Devil finds work for idle hands and as our leaders chased full briefcases of cash, fancy cars and hotel rooms, luxurious homes and private education they lost focus on getting the country fully united and working towards long term prosperity. Civil Servants became aware of the power of the bribe, the power of a tender, the power of privilege through BEE and our economy become a shark frenzied feeding ground – from the traffic officer taking cash to the civil servant working for KFC – we all took part in a frenzy of shamefully wasting our citizen’s money, time and faith in us.

We forgot an Ancient Law; “Thou Shalt not Steal” and justified our actions based on the actions of our elected leaders….

We have allowed our leaders to rob us of our dignity, our knowledge and our pride as year after year they promise us the world and under deliver woefully.

Our path to PRIDE is in our hands, we need to stop abdicating our responsibility to leaders proven to NOT be able to plan their way out of a wet paper bag and make the change ourselves. For that we do not need leaders. We need partners who will attend to whatever they have as a mandate from the voters. Ward Councillors need to focus on Service Delivery to the exclusion of party and solely on behalf of their wards and city. Provincial MPL’s need to do the same. Leave policy to National Leaders. Hope that National Leaders will lead our moral regeneration and champion our country and it’s long and difficult path back to prosperity.