POLITICS

The ANC keeps opportunities for friends, pals and cronies – DA

Corruption denies South Africans opportunities to get ahead in life, says Phumzile Van Damme

Corruption an epidemic keeping SA back from freedom, fairness and opportunity

2 December 2015

News yesterday that South Africa is perceived to be the most corrupt nation on the African continent is a devastating blow to the image of our country, brought about by a government that protects and defends the corrupt, rather than rooting out this malfeasance.

Transparency International’s finding against South Africa, based on 42,143 interviews conducted by Afrobarometer across sub-Saharan Africa, shows that promises by Jacob Zuma’s ANC government to tackle corruption have yielded no results, and in fact South Africa is now perceived as increasingly corrupt.

Corruption is a selfish and arrogant practice that denies South Africans opportunities to get ahead in life. Under Jacob Zuma we have seen South Africa descend into a culture of insiders and outsiders, where those connected to President Zuma get endless opportunities and benefits, and the remainder of South Africa gets poorer, sees growing unemployment and stagnant development.

The cost to South Africa of Jacob Zuma’s corrupt government is immense, and to individual citizens it is a heartbreaking reality that only insiders will get ahead, while outsiders will be left behind.

What the corrupt ANC government has entrenched is a system where every opportunity, every ANC government contract, every key institutional position, every upliftment program and every empowerment chance, goes through an ANC filter where the insiders get first dibs, and what’s left gets cast out to South African citizens.

While our people yearn for opportunities, Jacob Zuma’s ANC keeps them for friends, pals and cronies.

Our economy is at its weakest in decades, with rising interest rates, worst-ever currency exchange rates and deplorably high unemployment, yet perceptions of corruption are keeping investment out and stopping our economy growing. This is the great crime of our time, and one for which Jacob Zuma will go down in notorious history.

Instead of welcoming investors, the ANC has passed the Protection of Investment Act which is chasing investors away. Instead of complying with international obligations, the ANC helped Omar al Bashir to elude arrest in June. Instead of voting at the United Nations for the protection of Human Rights, South Africa voted against a resolution to sanction rights violations.

Under Jacob Zuma South Africa is increasingly siding with pariah nations, growing perceptions of corruption and keeping our people back from real freedom.

The DA will continue to champion the breaking down of an insiders and outsiders culture in South Africa, to allow people to access opportunities freely, to receive fair treatment from government and to enjoy true freedom in South Africa.

Issued by Phumzile Van Damme, National Spokesperson, DA, 2 December 2015