Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng has called on South Africans to be as outraged and demanding of justice in reaction to private sector corruption as they are in instances of state wrongdoing.
“There is corruption and wrongdoing in the private sector, how it escapes the public space, or finds some space for a little while then disappears, has confounded me for a very long time,” he said.
Mogoeng was speaking at a ceremony to install him as Chancellor of the University of KwaZulu-Natal on Wednesday.
He said, “There is a lot wrong in the public sector, there is corruption, there is mismanagement. It must be spoken against so that it is corrected. We mustn't just speak against it...it’s easy to criticise, look for solutions, that’s the difficult part.”
Recently, several private sector players such as some of the biggest banks, KPMG, Multichoice and most recently global retailer Steinhoff, have been exposed or are being investigated for allegations of corruption, fraud or wrongdoing.
Mogoeng urged that people look to and uphold the country’s constitutional aspirations.
“If you do that, there is no room for an eye that is only vigilant on seeing wrongdoing in only one sector and never seeing wrongdoing in the other sector. As long as we pretend that wrongdoing is only in the public sector and never in the private sector, we are never going to achieve our constitutional aspirations,” he said.