Published on Linkedin on February 23, 2016
‘Today it is regarded as one of the most corrupt countries in the world. In the past
number of years, the leaders of this country have stolen more than two and a half
trillion rand. The average citizen, on the other hand, today only receives about R100
in income per week.
Recently, administration has been making concerted efforts to tackle corruption.
Ministers have been dismissed and the government is committed to change. The
money is being ring-fenced to tackle poverty and this spending is very closely
monitored. The government has committed that the money should go to the very
poorest. The country, with the most dangerous slums in Africa, is seen as having the
greatest natural resources on the continent. It is also the one with the highest
potential for development.
One can be excused for thinking that we are talking here about South Africa.
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The country in question is, of course, Nigeria. South Africa has yet to go through the
quagmire that is Nigeria’s recent history; a history of untold shame, sorrow and
suffering – all at the hands of the kleptocrats.
Kleptocracy derives from the Greek words kleptes, meaning ‘thief’, and kratos,
meaning ‘rule’. It is a word used to describe a government widely engaged in
corruption to extend the personal wealth and political power of individuals in the ruling
class.
A corrupt and dishonest government, characterised by greed, is described as
kleptocratic. Such a government is typically run by rulers who are thieves and who
pillage public funds to the detriment of the poor, sometimes without the pretence of
offering any form of honest public service. These kleptocrats then exploit a country’s
natural resources for their own greedy benefit.
The money on which these evil managers of men prey is almost always funds
earmarked for the building of public amenities, schools, hospitals, roads, parks and
public facilities. Thus, the ordinary citizen is prejudiced, inconvenienced and deprived
by these selfish kleptocrats.
The term ‘kleptocrat’ was first used in the 1960s to describe the activities of the ruler
of the independent Congo, Colonel Joseph Mobutu, who plundered the rich natural
resources of that country for his personal benefit. However, the term could equally
have applied to his colonial predecessor, King Leopold II of Belgium. It is said that the
megacity of Brussels, a European Union bastion, was built with the kleptocratic
proceeds of the resources of the Congo Basin.
The story of Africa is one of the Europeans plundering the natural resources of the
continent and then, when caught with their hands in the cookie jar, hastily effecting
a democratic handover to the most likely African kleptocrat.
This book has urged you young South Africans to develop your own sense of right and
wrong, your own morality, your own ethics and your own zone of indifference. This is
in the absence of a reliable schooling and education system. It is a ploy of all
kleptocrats known to man, to restrain the emerging youth from education, thus
guaranteeing for themselves a stratum of humanity upon which to prey. Be warned.
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Be alert. Be careful. Be your own person and be democratic. It has taken Nigeria 40
years to learn this painful lesson.
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