Corruption isn’t SA’s no.1 enemy, it is a result of unresolved issues

Corruption is not our number one enemy in this country. It is problem, but not the main problem. Has there ever been a point in the past 100 years or more in South Africa when corruption was not a problem? Well, the short answer is no. However, when Auditor-General Kimi Makwetu released the latest municipality audit results, we reacted with total dismay.

In no way do I condone corruption of any form.

However, it is shocking that we are shocked by the results when actually, we should be at a point where we accept that corruption will always be a part of our lives because it isn’t the fundamental problem in South Africa.

It is a response by the many marginalised, poverty-stricken and hungry South Africans to a system that excludes them in all imaginable ways. Our economy is not designed to accommodate black people. The economy and the political spaces were never designed to do so.

We need to expropriate land without compensation. We need to distribute the wealth of this country fairly. Do you know who owns and runs the land and wealth of this country? It is the white people. So, the centre of our problems in South Africa is racism. This racism has birthed capitalism. It is the big brother to the white privilege that is enjoyed by the minority in our country.

The land that is supposed to restore our dignity, create jobs and grow this economy is mostly in the hands of white people. This economy that is struggling is in the hands of white people.

So, the deterioration of our principles and morals as black South Africans is a result of the injustices that started in 1948. I am not sorry to be the one to tell you that the so-called nine to 10 wasted years are not the reason why South Africans are still poor and marginalised. I may have mentioned the land issue to much of your annoyance, but it remains the truth.

As you read this, many black, poor South Africans are dying of hunger. They are drowning in debt.

The visuals of panic or bulk buying that happened just before the lockdown was effected are still so vivid in my recollection. I saw lots of white people queuing up to fill trollies and trollies with food and other essentials, and blacks had to wait for specific month-end dates to try and get a few things at the stores.

Because of white privilege, the whites could afford to go to the the shops as and when they please. This immoral, corrupt, capitalist system we live under in SA permits this.

If municipal or government offices are the only spaces where a few tenders can help some blacks to make ends meet, remember that they are simply responding to a system that excludes them.

I could be mistaken for a Zuma apologist or an EFF praiser. Nevertheless, we need to stop using corruption as an excuse for the lack of radical economic and social transformation in our country.

If we one day want to see our municipalities not recording any irregular expenditure, we must be intentional and deliberate about the eradication of racism, redistribution of wealth justly, a transformed inclusive economy and the expropriation of land without compensation.

Otherwise, corruption will always be a part of us and it should not be used as a scapegoat for us to avoid dealing with the many elephants in the room.

Kabelo Chabalala.

• Kabelo Chabalala is the founder and chairperson of the Young Men Movement (YMM), an organisation that focuses on the reconstruction of the socialisation of boys to create a new cohort of men. Email, kabelo03chabalala@gmail.com; Twitter, @KabeloJay; Facebook, Kabelo Chabalala

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