CORRUPTION IS INSTITUTIONAL IN ESWATINI

Fighting corruption has never been an enjoyable and easy assignment for those entrusted with the responsibility and mandate to ensure it does not undermine equity or rather fairness and justice.

The complexities or intricacies of corruption stem from the institutionalisation of the abuse of entrusted power for private gain. In Eswatini, we have a corruption that is not easy to eliminate, because it is ministerial, departmental or cultural in its manifestation. Experts say institutional corruption is manifest when there is a systematic and strategic influence which is legal or even currently ethical, that undermines the institution’s effectiveness by diverting it from its purpose or weakening its ability to achieve its purpose.

When emaSwati complained to His Majesty the King about high levels of corruption in the country, culminating in his directive that it must be uprooted, I knew that law enforcement agents can only deal with individualistic corruption. I knew they would not deal with structured or institutional corruption because Africa is yet to demonstrate a high level of commitment to eradication of the corruption that has been institutionalised by attitude, law, ethics and culture.

If we are to be considered serious with the fight against graft, we have to first restructure government. Without restructuring the government systems, it will always be hard or rather impossible to eliminate societal and political unscrupulousness that tend to stop the ‘heart’ pumping the ‘blood’ stimulating the country’s economic growth.

Institutionalised

No one has publicly announced or declared that directors of companies have to bribe for tenders, an institutionalised corruption that new businesses find itself entrenched in traditions and ready for embracement if one wants his or her business to survive. Institutional corruption is either cultural, in the sense that it speaks to a tradition we have embraced and nurtured over a long period of time or legal, in the sense that we condone it or accept it because it is legislated through Gazettes and Circulars.

When corrupt government officials want to steal from the public purse, they no longer utilise the conventional method of cash withdrawal through illicit means. They issue a Circular that increases their perks. That is how political corruption has been institutionalised in mostly governments of Africa.

This person wants to steal E1 million from the central bank and he does not want to put a hand in the safe, lest he be caught and the smartest way to finally get the E1 million is to issue the Circular increasing his perks. Africa for you!
When we begin to say they are now serious with the fight against corruption, it is when they have arrested a ‘nobody’ who has issued an identity card (ID) in contravention of procedure. This is a serious misdemeanour though that we have to ensure it does not compromise our identity and social order.

The leakage of the classified documents that were in the custody of the Eswatini Financial Intelligence Unit may be, of course, illegal, but it does show that the people who enjoy power or connected to those who have power are doing as they please, without any caution or arrest. It would appear very soon that ordinary emaSwati are those who are target for arrest and parading in public courts. As earlier pointed out that corruption is part of the African culture, I was not surprised when the African National Congress (ANC) foiled an investigation into the Phala Phala scandal.
This is because its President, Cyril Ramaphosa was implicated.

Some law enforcers were astonished when Ramaphosa was cleared, by a state ombudsman, of wrongdoing over the theft of thousands of US Dollars stuffed into a sofa on his private game farm. Kholeka Gcaleka, South Africa’s Acting Public Protector, said Ramaphosa did not violate an ethics code over the fallout from the 2020 incident when at least US$580 000 (E10.44 million) was stolen from the Phala Phala reserve, which set off a chain of events that shook his authority in the ruling ANC.

Obligations

“The allegation that the president improperly exposed himself to any risk of a conflict between his constitutional duties and obligations and his private interests arising from or affected by (the Phala Phala theft) is not substantiated,” Gcaleka said. She claimed there was also no evidence that the president abused his power over an investigation into the theft of the cash, which he has said came from a sale of buffalo, but did question how police handled the probe.

Basically, the findings strengthen Ramaphosa’s hand in the governing party after he came close to resigning over the scandal, when a report to parliamentarians found he might have broken the law over the theft’s aftermath.
He opted to stay on as president as supporters rallied around him and the ANC re-elected him by a large margin to lead it into national elections next year. The party also used its parliamentary majority to veto a full investigation by lawmakers into his possible impeachment over the affair.

It is understood, as pointed out by the Daily Maverick, that the scandal threatened to shatter an already fragile effort to turn round South Africa’s institutions and economy since he took power in 2018. Political corruption derives its power from statutes and parliamentary privileges. If the Phala Phala scandal, a clear cut case of money laundering, involved an ordinary South African, he or she would have been arrested and paraded in court.

Regardless of its institutionalisation, political corruption is selective and subjective. It has always been very difficult to deal with it because of its politicisation and subsequent requirement that law enforcement agents should first respond to political questions and concerns, before they can arrest a politically connected suspect. There was an interest to investigate allegations of impropriety at the Public Service Pension Fund (PSPF), but the proposed or initiated probe by the Financial Services Regulatory Authority was foiled under questionable circumstances.

Eswatini has a problem with institutional corruption and nothing else. I want to state that some officers of the Anti Corruption Commission and Eswatini Financial Intelligence Unit are sick and tired of institutional corruption. Just last week, an investor, perceived to be a billionaire in US Dollars, was in the country. I would not mention his name.

Override

Guess what, many politicians and traditionalists approached him for personal financial gain. He was bombarded with personal requests such that he got surprised to realise that there are people in Eswatini whose personal needs override those of the government and the nation, which include job creation as a primary benefit for all emaSwati and their economy.

Some investors have been told that they have to part with lots of money in bribes before they can set up businesses. We are losing as a nation. Again, that is a clear cut case of unwanted institutional corruption. Dennis F. Thomson, in his publication on theories of institutional corruption, points to the fact that theories of corruption have developed an institutional conception that is distinct from both the individualistic approaches, focused on quid pro quo exchanges and other institutional approaches found in the literature on developing societies.

Indeed, these theorists emphasise the close connection between patterns of corruption and the legitimate functions of institutions. Thomson states: “The corruption benefits the institution while undermining it.” He then suggests that reforms should be directed toward finding alternatives for the functions the corruption serves.

Just as it happens in Eswatini, I have also realise in the same way Thomson puts it in writing that ‘institutional corruption does not require that its perpetrators have corrupt motives, and it is not limited to political institutions.’
I mentioned the issuance of Gazettes and Circulars to legalise corruption and Thomson states in categorical terms that institutional corruption is impersonal. This is due to the fact that individual agents of corruption act in institutional roles

And do not have the corrupt motives that characterise agents who participate in quid pro quo exchanges.
Politicians who accept campaign contributions and do favours for their constituents act partly in their own political interest, but also promote the competitive and other values of the democratic process. In Eswatini, individuals who practise institutional corruption, personalise government or company property. When he or she has to approve payment, he feels uncomfortable and reserved, as if he is paying from his or her personal account.

For the payment to be approved, it is now a norm that the paymaster and paymistress must get a share of the money that government is paying to the supplier. The supplier does not see anything wrong with this practice or arrangement, because this institutional corruption was embraced on the basis of their inculcated culture and tradition.
They know that their payment may be delayed for five years if they do not deduct 10 per cent from the E5 million which the private company or government is obligated to pay them.

Tormenting

Unless you are prepared for tormenting mental frustration, you can tell the paymaster to go to hell. Otherwise, institutional corruption has been embraced to enrich those who are salaried to offer services to you. Recently, I raised concern that drug lords do as they please in this country. They are feared by law enforcement agents and journalists because they are known to be heartless and can kill anytime.

We have inculcated a culture to tolerate drug lords. We now celebrate them as if they are kings and queens. Eswatini needs a police force that will pounce on them. Drug kingpins get away with murder in Eswatini. They are untouchable. They are relaxed, counting their millions of Rands and Emalangeni.

They are not worried about their black business; after all, they seemingly enjoy some protection somewhere. As a result, they are entertaining their women, drinking alcohol and driving recklessly on the roads. They are feeding our children with cocaine, mandrax and other harmful drugs. I mentioned that drug lords think they control the country.
On January 5, 2023, the Times of Eswatini reported that Eswatini had over 14 000 users of cocaine. We are no longer safe as a nation.

If 14 000 people take cocaine, how many are driving vehicles? How many of them are driving public vehicles? This is very concerning when we consider the fact that Eswatini is a small nation with about 1.3 million people.
Institutional corruption has tolerated this rubbish and I am very disappointed.

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