There is something fundamentally wrong with a system that allows a person convicted of a criminal offence to be appointed as an MP, but prevents the same person to be appointed to any civil service position.
Yet this is the situation that prevails in this country presently, with the ruling party in particular, fielding many MPs with criminal records, some occupying senior positions in Parliament.
All this serves to underline is the perception amongst citizens that the political elite is served and judged by a completely different justice system than ordinary people.
So, if one regards Parliament as the body that is ultimately responsible for creating the laws, rules and regulations we as citizens are meant to live by, then you have a situation where, in a way, the lunatics are running the asylum.
This casual approach to ethical behaviour that the ruling party has adopted for its representatives in the apex legislative body in the country has permeated every tier of government.
There can be no doubt that the systemic and endemic corruption we endure as a nation has been enabled by this attitude, what Lindiwe Mazibuko writing in the Sunday Times calls ‘a tide of ethical bankruptcy, runaway corruption and systemic political mismanagement’.
It has emboldened the corrupt to show their middle finger to a decision by the ruling party’s highest decision-making body that resolved that party members in leadership positions charged with criminal offences step aside from these positions while their cases are in progress.
The ‘innocent until proven guilty’ brigade have triumphed: conscience and self-reflection be damned.
Across provincial, district and local structures, office bearers cling to their positions, or sometimes grudgingly accept a move sideways (as long as the position has the same or better benefits and perks).
Sadly, the Ethics Committees at all levels are also powerless and toothless, existing only in name, to tick the appropriate box.
Indeed, the parliamentary Ethics Committee has a backlog of cases dating back three years or more, with apparently little enthusiasm being shown to address this.
Even the ruling party’s own Integrity Committee has been regarded with disdain by the party at large, and those few who have deigned to make themselves available for ‘interviews’, have dismissed the findings with alacrity.
The ruling part has given fact to the perception that politics and integrity are seldom bedfellows.
Political commentator Mpumemelo Makhabela writing in the Friday Briefing on News 24 sums it up perfectly : ‘The Party has a chronic lack of conscience’.
* Vijay Naidoo writes in his capacity as CEO of the Port Shepstone Business Forum. The views expressed are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of this publication.
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