“Corruption on this scale makes the whole economy inefficient, destroys jobs, destroys our credibility and drives away investors.”
On the heels of countrywide anti-corruption marches, the Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry has added its voice to the drive saying every attempt to combat corruption must be made, as it was “a cancer in our midst”.
Chamber executive director, Sid Peimer, accepted a petition from marchers taking part in the protest action outside Parliament.
Organised by Unite Against Corruption (UAC), a broad-based coalition of organisations and individuals who have put out a call to action to South Africans concerned about the corruption in the country, the march saw at least a thousand people protesting peacefully in the Mother city on Wednesday.
According to a UAC spokesman, a tipping point has been reached in the country where people are ready to overlook differences in order to protest against the damage that corruption has wrought on the country. The country is at a stage where a strong, peaceful and unified response to corruption is necessary to make those responsible listen to the masses.
Janine Myburgh, president of the Chamber, said there was now an accumulation of evidence of bribes and other forms of corruption.
“This is not a party political matter. Investigators in Germany, Sweden and the UK have found evidence against companies in their own countries of a billion rand in bribes in the arms deal,” she said. “We have had evidence of a bribe to secure the 2010 World Cup, and this week the US Securities Exchange Commission found details of massive payments to the ANC’s Chancellor House by Hitachi which surely helped to secure contracts to build our new power stations. Hitachi paid $19m to settle out of court and this would not have happened unless the evidence was very strong indeed.”
She said internal investigations had produced equally frightening results. “In 2011 Willie Hofmeyr, head of the Special Investigation Unit, told Parliament that between R25 billion and R30 billion of the state’s annual procurement budget alone had been lost to corruption, incompetence and negligence. The situation has not improved since then. It is not even necessary to mention the Public Protector’s reports to make the case.”
Myburgh said there was now a mountain of evidence of corruption but very little sign of prosecutions. “Corruption on this scale makes the whole economy inefficient, destroys jobs, destroys our credibility and drives away investors. It is time to deal with the criminals.”
