NEVA MAKGETLA: How to weed out corruption more quickly and efficiently
Public anger and emotional appeals to morality fail to tackle the system of corruption
The public discourse on corruption focuses more on finding new ways to condemn exposed politicians and political servants than on identifying practical measures to limit abuse. Yet experience in SA and internationally shows that appeals to morality by themselves won’t end corruption. Indeed, they can end up demobilising civil society and public servants by making it all seem hopeless.
That is truly dangerous. As the movement to end state capture showed, the bedrock of anti-corruption efforts is public organisation to hold government leaders and officials to account. Instead of virtue signalling we need to analyse how government systems and economic structures create an environment where corruption can thrive...
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