The only way to deal with the problem of systemic corruption in Africa is not by trying to ignore it but by confronting it courageously. Corruption is singularly the most destabilising and impoverishing phenomenon in the African continent today. We owe it to the next generations to install robust anti-corruption and transparent systems.
Regarding the fight against corruption, the one disconcerting habit in African society is the culture of trivialising corrupt institutional culture which only serves to minimise the practice, denigrate the exploitation and alienation of the average citizen and insult the memory of those who fought for African independence, prosperity, and freedoms.
Defining corruption
Corruption is a function of dishonesty or lack of integrity for personal or collective entity gain; it is not only the abuse of public office, but also the abuse of power and influence vested in a person because of holding an influential position in society, e.g., political office, corporate world, having personal wealth or access to significant resources, or of having elevated social standing.
Gains can be both financial and non-financial in the form of the preservation or increase of a person or an entity’s position of power and influence.
Our understanding of corruption must not be limited to the monetary form by way of bribery, but to include a wide range of behaviours, including but not limited to conflicts of interest, patronage, nepotism, embezzlement, influence peddling or the manipulation of legislative processes with an ulterior corrupt objective.
What is systemic corruption?
Systemic corruption is a pervasive and entrenched pattern of corrupt practices that are ingrained within the institutions and culture of an organization, often leading to widespread unethical behaviour and erosion of accountability. The corruption is not limited to individual acts but is enabled by in-built structural and systemic weaknesses of an organization.
Fighting systemic corruption
There is no simple way of fighting corruption, let alone systemic corruption; it is important that we recognise and understand what we are fighting. This means generating sufficient and reliable information about the corruption system by scrutinising each of its constituent parts: the elements (the who), the interconnections (the how) and the functions (the why).
We must analyse how some of our social and cultural behaviours propagate, maintain, and perpetuate the phenomenon. In many local cultures, petty corruption or minor rule deviations seem to be routinely accepted and justified as a functional practice that smoothens social exchange – the ‘I scratch your back, you scratch mine’ attitude.
How to recognise a ‘corruption system’
Corruption becomes systemic when it is 1) perpetrated by networks that 2) act according to stable practices and norms (institutionalised), and that 3) serve political or social functions that emerge through design or dysfunction (Jackson, 2022).
Why systemic corruption may persist despite anti-corruption measures
There are many interconnected reasons why even the best anti-corruption mechanisms may fail to halt systemic corruption. Relationships between informal interactions of society and the formal rules are a big factor. Whenever the formal rules lose acceptance, the prevailing informal rules of the society take over; the everyday structures of give and take in a society are accepted even when they are prohibited or criminalised by laws and statutes.
Jackson (2022) argues that when corruption evolves into a system, it eludes accountability mechanisms and make anti-corruption efforts impotent. This happens because systems operate according to a co-option–impunity–exploitation dynamic. They seek strength through a greater number of participants (‘co-option’). As co-option increases, so do the incentives to protect the people within the system from scrutiny and formal oversight. Participants adopt active, often corruption backed, steps to achieve impunity. Impunity creates further scope for other forms of exploitation – violence and intimidation, organised crime and discrimination. Abuse and threats lead to further institutional decay, lowering the capacity for effective and independent anti-corruption action (Jackson, 2022).
To maintain resilience, the corruption system utilises networks whose sole function is to defend the system against conventional anti-corruption mechanism. As such, typical anti-corruption reforms, even if successful in implementing measures against a specific practice, can result in corruption displacement rather than control. We see this where anti-corruption efforts are narrowly focused in specific areas and crafty participants move their activities from areas of high surveillance to areas of weaker scrutiny.
Building anti-corruption resilience
We need to understand the broader dysfunction, and its impact on efficiency, and prioritise our target for anti-corruption measures, e.g., dealing with the corruption that most constrains outcomes in a sector.
There is need for social empowerment; this entails strengthening civil society to enhance its political and economic aptitude, providing clear pathways of access and rules of interaction between state and society. Social empowerment reduces public vulnerability and reduces co-option into corruption systems.
Conclusion
Do not be an apologist of institutional corruption; do not ignore it; do not normalise evil because you do not have the weapons to fight it yet. Raise your moral standards; build an understanding of the monster. Fight with all your might and build comprehensive and resilient anti-corruption mechanisms.
MTHWAKAZI INDEPENDENT 
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