Confronting corruption

Malawian president Lazarus Chakwera, who took office after defeating Peter Mutharika in the June 2020 election, has not wasted time fulfilling his campaign promises, moving with commendable speed.

Contrast that with his SA counterpart, President Cyril Ramaphosa, who on being elected president three years ago promised to restore confidence in the governing party and root out the culture of corruption that had become entrenched during former president Jacob Zuma’s tenure.

It has been a long, hard road for Ramaphosa. The ANC is in crisis and fast losing credibility. And he has a lot on his plate in addition to the corruption that has even ensnared his health minister in an escalating Covid-19 pandemic, including escalating factional battles in the governing party and now violent protests and looting that have dealt a heavy blow to the economic recovery and vaccine rollout. It is clear that the beneficiaries of past patronage will not give up the perks of proximity to power easily.

There is no doubt that Ramaphosa has the best of intentions, and with the right support could drag SA towards a brighter future. But right now he is tap-dancing on the spot. As the past few days of lawlessness have shown, tackling unemployment is an imperative, with estimates putting as much as 75% of the “born-free” generation out of work.

Kick-starting a new era of job creation must be a priority for the Ramaphosa administration, and like Chakwera he will need both policy reform and the support of the international community to succeed.

Tough decisions must be made. And one of them must surely be an end to the restrictive BEE regulations that have given rise to corrupt “tenderpreneur” contracts that exclude a big chunk of the economy and serve only to inflate prices and encourage the emigration of hard-working, taxpaying professionals — black and white — to places like Canada, the UK, Australia and New Zealand.

In direct contrast, Chakwera, who on election promised to lead by example — pledging to declare his assets every year, reduce the powers of the president, root out corruption and face parliamentary questions as a way of correcting decades of misgovernance — has made demonstrable progress doing just that. Granted, unlike Ramaphosa he has the full support of his cabinet, his government and the electorate, who were sick of years of corruption under the Mutharika regime. He does not have to constantly deal with factional battles within the governing party and face repeated threats to his political survival while also trying to run the country. 

The scale of the corruption in SA and Malawi also differs greatly. Chakwera claims about $1bn (R14.3bn) was stolen from Malawi’s coffers during Peter Mutharika’s presidency. In comparison, SA’s state capture by the Gupta family and their SA accomplices is estimated to have resulted in the looting of R100bn and counting.

Chakwera’s efforts to fight corruption have also been boosted by the appointment of Martha Chizuma, a fearless legal bulldozer, as head of the Malawi Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB). The result-orientated and industrious Chizuma made history by becoming the first woman to head the bureau. She has a track record of getting things done when given the space and time. Just after taking over as bureau head in June, Chimuza launched a probe into the National Oil Company of Malawi's procurement process, which has long been marred by irregularities and corruption.

Though Chakwera has been criticised for selecting a cabinet that is 70% from his home turf, the central region, it has so far demonstrated that no-one is above the law in Malawi by bringing to book several people in high office. While Ramaphosa appears to be making similar efforts to get to the root of corruption, his tenuous position in the ANC and relative strength of the Zuma-aligned faction has meant he has had to bide his time and rely on institutions such as the Special Investigating Unit to flush out corrupt elements in the party.

The most important step Ramaphosa has taken so far is the Zondo state capture commission, which indirectly led to the jailing of Zuma for contempt of court and the eruption of violent protest and looting of the past few days. Even so, the law has been allowed to take its course, and important precedents have been set.

Both Ramaphosa and Chakwera have had to deal with corruption arising from the response to the coronavirus pandemic involving senior government officials and even ministers. But the way they have dealt with the alleged culprits differs. In Malawi, labour minister Ken Kandodo was fired forthwith for misappropriation of Covid-19 funds, while in SA health minister Zweli Mkhize was eventually put on special leave pending further investigation after being accused of rubber-stamping a R150m contract favouring his former aides’ communications company. 

While the ANC’s national working committee suspended six top- ranking officials, including secretary-general Ace Magashule and former minister Bongani Bongo, it has become clear that the factional battles within the ANC have had a severely negative affect on governance and service delivery, and there is rising public pressure for this to change. 

The SA government would do well to follow Malawi's example and freeze the accounts of those who have been accused of corruption while efforts are made to recover money that has been stolen or earned through corrupt practices, beginning with the Guptas and including politicians. It is important to the maintenance of the rule of law that impunity is not seen to be the norm.

The last decade has shown that the Sadc and the AU are toothless bodies, incapable of defending democracy or even encouraging good governance among member states. Their handling of Zimbabwe is a case in point. It is therefore up to members such as SA and Malawi to set the example by running clean economies that are free of corruption. 

• Dube is an academic with a master’s degree in international relations and politics. Hudleston is a journalist and author of Face of Courage: A Biography of Morgan Tsvangirai’