Enough of these leaked e-mails. I’m joining the EFF or hiring its top leadership to advise my government, ages overdue, but the time is now. The way to save my people, my country, my continent and humankind is the movement of the future or something similar.
Politicians, businessmen and multinationals all over the world are in trouble because they missed the signs. Power corrupted their perceptive ability.
The latest, as if Gupta e-mails and currency-manipulation scandals are not enough, is former Petroleum Resources Minister of Nigeria, Diezani Alison-Madueke. She is set to lose $144million (R1.9billion) in assets. She allegedly received bribes amounting to $1.5bn.
Somehow, she left a trail of evidence by using interbank transfers to receive funds and buying expensive furniture and gifts in the US.
The powerful must learn how technology works, not to save them from getting caught, but to make them better leaders.
But even Trump Jnr fell into the same trap, with his Russian e-mail scandal; perhaps there is no hope.
Everybody who is anybody "shook hands with the wrong people", to paraphrase Tokyo Sexwale.
However, their clumsiness in leaving incriminating information on their gadgets means we need protection from people who should protect us. For the sake of their safety - and ours - they need schooling on the workings of the Internet of Things (IoT).
Back to me joining the EFF, the movement is perfect for a world dominated by millennials; folks born between 1980 and 2004.
A strong sense of community, local and global, is the principal trait, according to the Strauss-Howe generational theory. It predisposes them to do good for humanity.
Famous millennials include Edward Snowden, Lupita Nyong’o, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Julius Malema.
Your compromising photos and steamy videos or e-mails proving your involvement in tender irregularities or insider trading must be safely stowed, if you cross any millennial.
The IoT logic dictates that all unsavoury electronic records be treated the same way in which shredders dispose of confidential documents.
The EFF was founded precisely for the era of millennials.
Its motto resonates with younger people and those from Generation X, like myself. If the EFF or its equivalent ran the world, South Africa would not have missed the digital migration deadline, data would be free and our cyber security impregnable.
Progressive countries have an organisation similar to the EFF in charge or advising their governments. South Africa must follow suit.
The digital epoch we find ourselves in ought to signify a safer and affordable life for all.
Yet our leaders continue to compromise us and retard inclusive economic growth with their analogue thinking. Only millennials can save us from the grip of ineptitude, poor service delivery, greed and corruption; remember #FeesMustFall?
Former CIA operative Snowden taught the National Security Agency a lesson, leaking classified documents in 2013. His conscience, the US authorities termed it disloyalty, plus his cyber-security expertise, made him a national security risk where he could have been an asset. Pioneers are commonly ridiculed or criminalised, at first, anyway.
That is precisely what we need, when politicians and business leaders are proving to be out of sync.
We crave organisations whose leaders understand life in the era of mobile communications, e-commerce and cybercrime to run our country or coach our leaders. The EFF is the answer, my people.
The EFF would put systems in place to protect ordinary citizens from the heightened risk of cybercrime and replace our archaic policies with those that are friendlier to e-commerce, creating conditions for business to thrive.
The EFF, or its equivalent, can help our governments to implement measures to ensure that when another break-in at the office of the chief justice happens, no shred of data will be at risk. That will
stem this endless spate of embarrassing cyber scandals.
The likes of the EFF comprehend IoT. The organisation supposedly provides funds for legal defence in court, defends individuals and works to expose government malfeasance. Yes, the EFF does that; Electronic Frontier Foundation - look them up. Oh you thought that no!
* Kgomoeswana is the author of Africa is Open for Business, a media commentator and public speaker on African business affairs, and a weekly columnist for African Independent - Twitter Handle: @VictorAfrica
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.