Corruption. Corruption this, corruption that. It seems to be the ‘it’ word amongst most of our politicians in our beloved African continent. “We will fight against corruption,” they will shout at the top of their vices during election campaigns. Usually, such hackneyed declarations will be met with thunderous applause by the gullible—or is it just hopeful?—crowd. Yet once they are in power it’s all systems go—business as usual. No change. As I see it, it’s just rhetoric; just political humbug. Politicians’ tongues are usually sharp against corruption, yet their day-to-day actions invalidate the big talk.

   Once these gentlemen (and the ladies too) are in power, they realise how much they’ve missed out over the years. So much wealth to amass in spite of the poor people who struggle to make ends meet. There are little or no repercussions. They collude with big business, the powerful bureaucratic bourgeoisie, and they eat. I know for instance that in South Africa and in Swaziland there is a justification—flimsy at it may be—for one’s helping themselves to public funds. It goes, “Badlile labanye, sekudla tsine” (Others have already eaten; now it’s our turn to eat).

   To validate the rhetoric of fighting corruption and to ‘eat’ in peace, most of our governments form anti-corruption commissions or units. Such a step is always accompanied by flare. These units are hailed as the saving grace in societies where ‘kugcobisa sandla’ (the greasing of one’s palm) or paying a bribe is a common way to get services from the government bureaucracy. But in many cases, this is just a decoy, a trick to make the public believe that something’s being done to curtail corruption. They’ll haul one or two expendable chaps (within the ‘eating’ scheme) to court; the case will drag for years and soon everybody forgets about it. When an overzealous civil society organisation begins harping about corruption this, corruption that: the authorities will use the aforementioned cases as a point of reference. “We have high profile cases already in court,” the government spokesperson will officially note, “and all we can do is to let the law take its course. We all know the wheels of justice grind slow, but very fine,” he or she will end self-importantly and very pleased with their response.

   But I dare you to scratch beyond the shiny surface. You will find that most of these anti-corruption initiatives are half-hearted and the agencies ill-capacitated, and consequently have their hands tied, in as far as dealing with this societal ill is concerned. For an example, Swaziland has the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC). It is empowered by the establishing Act to investigate, and if satisfied that it has built a case, send everything to the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for prosecution. That corruption case, which may have had tongues wagging, joins the long queue of cases—criminal, commercial or what have you—that have to be prosecuted by this overworked office. The corruption case may make it to the court roll in the next two months or two years; no one knows, these things are beyond anyone’s control, or so we are made to believe. The public ends up apathetic and questioning themselves if there’s anything wrong with embezzlement and misuse of public funds in the first place. Why? Not even a single big head is rolling.

If the graft-busting unit is well-capacitated and doing its job fairly well then it poses a threat to the elite, especially the political elite. Therefore means will be made to cut it into a manageable size. Politicians and their cohort do not like an anti-graft unit that is getting too big for its own boots. Yet that is not what they will say once they begin cutting it down to size. The words will be along the lines of ‘restructuring’ r ‘capacitating’. Take the case of South Africa; the Scorpions had a respectable anti-graft unit that had quite an impressive conviction rate. But its target at that time had been chiefly amongst the business class, without the requisite political connections. Once it began investigating the political hot-shots, there were grumblings in the corridors of power. The Scorpions had begun desecrating holy ground. Next thing you knew, they were disbanded under a masquerade f restructuring and that they had become a law unto themselves (a privilege reserved for politicians).

   Citizens of Africa, it’s nothing personal, our elites would like to help themselves on our taxes with no one breathing down their necks every time they stick their hands into the cookie jar. You see, the so-called fight against corruption must be dexterously balanced with the mantra ‘Others have eaten already, now it’s our time to eat’. Whether this is the best way to deal with the problem really depends on who you ask.