Johannesburg - The future of the country will remain in jeopardy unless efforts
are made to halt corruption, Zwelinzima Vavi, general secretary of
the Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu), said on Friday.
"Cosatu has for many years been concerned about corruption and
we will continue to be concerned until we finally put an end to
it," he told a Business Unity SA anti-corruption forum in Sandton,
Johannesburg.
Corruption threatened the very foundations of the country's
democracy, Vavi said.
"Only three days ago our Minister of Finance Pravin Gordhan in
his Medium Term Budget Policy Statement expressed concern about
government tenders that were tainted by corruption."
Vavi said "it takes two" to embark on a corrupt deal - on the
one side there were officials while on the other side there were
corrupt business people.
It was however, a mistake to assume that there was corruption
only in the public sector.
"The private sector is deeply implicated and millions have been
lost in white collar crime."
Vavi said a "disturbing culture" had set in and had taken root
"in society and in the movement" which threatened to erase
democracy.
"But this is a culture that has been imported into our movement
from the business sector.
"Capitalist culture praises those who accumulate the most and
despises those who fail."
Business in South Africa meant the survival of the fittest and
encompassed the "dog eat dog" idea as well as the "me first"
sentiment.
"However, the workers say an injury to one is an injury to all.
But in business they say an injury to one is an opportunity for
another."
Vavi went on to attack the high salaries and bonuses of top
executives as this made South Africa "the most unequal society on
earth today".
He said wages had consistently declined as a percentage of gross
domestic product (GDP).
"The figure in 1998 was 50% of GDP and in 2005 it was
only 40% of GDP - all while profits rose in the same
period."
Vavi said that fighting corruption was not only a moral
imperative but also an issue of "social justice" in South Africa.
"As Gwede Mantashe [ANC secretary general] has said, if we
don't act against corruption the ANC will move only one way and
that is down."
"Mantashe has now become an enemy in some quarters."
Those who wanted to be public servants had to live with their
salaries.
"Or they must then choose to be business people - no one should
be allowed to choose both and a simple declaration of interest is
not enough."
Vavi said corruption was an insult to the memory of African
National Congress leader Oliver Tambo who had spent 30 years in
exile, as well as to former president Nelson Mandela who had spent
27 years in prison.
"In fact corruption is an insult to all our heroes and
heroines," he said.
- Sapa