Commission To Probe Corruption Is A Cop-Out
President Ramaphosa’s commission of inquiry ‘solution’ to investigate Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi’s damning allegations of corruption within the police and judiciary is standard ANC practice intended to divert attention from the hard scrutiny of truth and to promote silence.
Coincidentally, the reality of his band-aid solution to the circumstances that prevail is contextualized by Nomvula Mabuza in her brilliant article in Business Report (July 14) on risk governance, as the following excerpts indicate:
‘The dominant model of leadership today treats admission of wrongdoing as political suicide rather than moral courage. The result is silence, secrecy and systemic rot…. Speak out and you fall. Stay quiet and you may be rewarded…. When truth becomes a career risk and integrity is punished, the long-term cost is not only institutional decay; it is moral disintegration.’
‘Ethics committees are undermined by internal loyalties. Audit findings are tabled but never resolved. And where risk detection mechanisms are present, they are often neutered by political interests.’
‘Restoring public trust will not begin with national conferences or anti-corruption week slogans. It will begin with institutional courage and public visibility. That means confessions by those who have erred. It means resignations with remorse, not resistance. It means truth with consequences.’
These principled precepts place the courage of Lieut-General Mkhwanazi in bold perspective. Simultaneously they highlight the extent to which Ramaphosa and the ANC are embroiled in what Mkhwanazi has bravely expressed and why a commission of inquiry is a cop-out.
