A Structural Collapse
Across the globe, the country of South Africa is having an immense struggle with the volume of corruption taking place in its government. With corruption taking place in even the highest of offices—including the president himself—, it is clear that this scandal is harming not only the people of South Africa but the reputation of the country’s government as well. This is a topic that is extremely important to delve into given the substantial effect this corruption has inflicted upon the people of South Africa. In the past, it has been shown that corruption in South Africa’s government has led to widespread poverty and civilian accidents leading to injury and even death. This stemming from government officials colluding with large corporations due to the economic benefits there to be taken advantage of.
In South Africa, corruption is largely stemmed from the South African leader's ideas of benefiting themselves due to the struggle they endured during apartheid. Although it seems natural for these leaders to want to empower themselves and have an economic gain while now being free from the apartheid state they were in, this simply benefits the rich 1% of South African individuals with a complete disregard for the impoverished South African civilians. By the South African government officials creating economic benefit for themselves by colluding with large government-supported corporations, this is simply a new model of what went on during apartheid. This proving the reality where only the “elite” gain benefit from the social structure of the country while the majority population was meant to suffer without the same opportunities.
With the government officials of South Africa using their power to create an economic benefit through the use of corruption causes a huge need for reform in the structure of politics in South Africa. This ideally would need to stem from one of the highest forms of power and in the case of South Africa, that would be the president given the reality of other government officials being easily corruptible. However in South Africa in the past years, this has not been the case. While President Jacob Zuma was in office, he had many corruption allegations being brought against him eventually forcing him to resign. In a country where corruption is affecting all individuals across the nation, having a credible and trustworthy president would be the first step to solving this crisis. This is where Zuma’s successor comes into play (President Cyril Ramaphosa). After Ramaphosa took over the office of the presidency from Zuma, he pledged to make combating corruption his main focus of the presidency, however, this was put into major question when multiple scandals including issues with schooling systems as well as civilian deaths were uncovered in South Africa presented at the fault of Ramaphosa’s deputy president. In specific many schools were so run down that children were affected by a lack of access to clean drinking water as well as the dangers of being hurt by falling buildings and landscaping.
At this completely unstable time for South Africa—in terms of their corruption in politics must be taken to inflict major reform in government for the betterment of society and the people of South Africa. We as individuals in our world today must look for ways to ensure that reform is being accomplished in South Africa and find ways to further explore and then help bring justice to the individuals who have committed this great wrongdoing.
Works Cited
Beirne, Aodhan. “Corruption in South Africa: A Guide to Our Recent Reporting.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 22 Dec. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/12/22/world/africa/corruption-south-africa-guide.html.
"South Africa: Corruption in South Africa - Echoes of Leaders Who Plundered Their Countries." allAfrica.com, 23 Jan. 2020, p. NA. Gale In Context: Global Issues, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A612133748/GIC?u=los42754&sid=GIC&xid=04f891ba. Accessed 13 Mar. 2020.
“South Africa's Jacob Zuma Denies Being 'King' of Corruption.” BBC News, BBC, 15 July 2019. www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-48989499.
Transparency International. “Corruption in Africa: 75 Million People Pay Bribes.” Www.transparency.org, 30 Nov. 2015, www.transparency.org/news/feature/corruption_in_africa_75_million_people_pay_bribes.
Veselinovic, Milena. “Why Corruption Is Holding Africa Back.” CNN, Cable News Network, 8 Jan. 2016.
I like how you talked about a specific example (the presidency) as well as how that changed over time. The article talks about how corruption in South Africa has unduly helped the wealthy elite get richer while the rest of South Africa suffers. How does the corruption actually occur (as in what are the specific actions that allow these government officials to take advantage of their positions in power)?
ReplyDeleteI like how you introduced your topic and did a good job of laying out and explaining the issue. I wonder if you could give examples of what people can do to fix this situation.
ReplyDeleteI also really liked your usage of the president to convey an issue throughout the entirety of the government. I wonder how, with corrupt people in power, Africa's government could change for the better.
ReplyDelete