AN anti-corruption symposium was hosted by UMTAPO, with the support of the Embassy of Finland and the DUT at the University's Hotel School Conference Centre on Friday.
A lack of consequences against wrongdoers is one of the many factors that perpetuated an increased culture of something for nothing that is takingover our society, Deputy Public Protector Adv. Kevin Malunga said on the symposium's panel. Our concern is that we are not seeing corruption related cases and people being arrested and prosecuted for corruption,” Malunga said.
Natal Coastal District Bishop Michael Vorster, speaking at the symposium said he was glad young people were leading the way in bringing corruption up for discussion. “It is everyone's responsibility to take responsibility for ourselves to turn the culture of corruption into a culture of honesty, integrity and truthfulness,” he added.
Xolilie Ntuli a youth programmes co-ordinator at UMTAPO said as an organisation, they deal with training in peace, human rights and anti racism as well as democracy and anti-corruption. “We train students about what is corruption and they in turn take the information back to their communities. “It's easy for people in positions of power to be corrupt , accept bribes etc. From our community workshops we thought getting like minded organisations together to speak about what they do to combat corruption would really help the public today.”
Ntuli said she hoped the symposium would show how important it was am for ordinary people to be whistle blowers of corruption and that ways of reducing corruption would come to the fore.
Shadi Nyokong, who attended the symposium said the learning about the impact corruption had on ordinary citizens with regard to access to services was an eye opener. “It's terrible, when people illegally get even a child's grant it takes away the grant form a deserving mother who needs to feed her child. These conversations are important for NGOs and people on the street. It's sad that some people are born into corruption especially those on lower income levels who think that bribes are part of life,” she added.
