Durban - Deputy Public Protector Advocate Kholeka Gcaleka says unethical behaviour in the form of maladministration, including indifference and corruption, were key factors in causing a loss of trust and confidence in public institutions.
Gcaleka was addressing a Human Rights Month webinar hosted by the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s School of Law on Tuesday when she spoke about the country’s endemic levels of corruption and service delivery failures.
She said there was general consensus that the prevalence of corruption pointed to a dearth of ethical leadership and a breakdown in the institutions that were supposed to enforce good governance practice, and it constituted a major threat to democracy and the rule of law.
“The phenomenon of corruption is a universal problem and considered particularly troublesome in developing nations like that of South Africa.
“Corruption is problematic for most developing nations primarily because resources that are meant to achieve socio-economic and developmental objectives are, often times than not, diverted to the benefit of few corrupt elites, thereby undermining the developmental goals of these nations,” Gcaleka said.
She said corruption was endemic, affected incomes and livelihoods of individuals and communities, and that it was one of the main obstacles to sustainable economic, political and social development for developing, emerging and developed economies alike, while it also reduced efficiency and increased inequality.
Touching on human rights and respect for the rule of law, Gcaleka said that complaints of maladministration and human rights questions that arose daily were of great consequence to many South Africans.
“Their quality of life and enjoyment of citizenship can hinge quite directly on how effectively these questions are resolved. The Public Protector has an important role in remedying the government’s administrative injustices or failures and reconciling the people with the state,” Gcaleka said.
She also said that access to basic public services continued to be a struggle for the majority of South Africans.
“While past disparities and backlogs with service delivery based on racial divides obviously contributed to the country’s socio-economic problems, the Public Service Accountability Monitor believes that a major cause of inequality in South Africa is poor governance, which includes not only corruption, but also poor performance of government officials in their management of public resources and a lack of political will to act against under-performing officials.
“The poor management of public resources translates directly into poor public service delivery implementation, and thus obviously undermines poverty alleviation policies and other initiatives to address inequality,” Gcaleka said.
Political Bureau