How complicity enabled corruption to destroy society

PROXIMITY is complicity. These words came to mind as I lay awake contemplating the president’s nephew’s Lamborghinis as they become the newest symbol of corruption as people perish in hospitals. 

I was thinking of the role of friends, family members and particularly the churches’ role in a corrupt society. If we knowingly enjoy the perks of proximity with those who enjoy stolen wealth without calling them out, that makes us complicit. 

As complicit as the white people who defend their gains from apartheid and colonial wealth that came because of black deaths, thefts and pain. One injustice justifies another. How many white churches for example do you know who have come out to renounce past injustices and committed to works of reparations?

 One or two perhaps, like In Harmony that has made reconciliation its core belief. Largely, the preacher preaches against the current corruption while the stench of the past lingers over the pews. This is infectious because the ground he preaches on accuses him and his forebears of the same.

The most loving act a friend or family member can do, is to correct their friend even if they reject it. That could save the wrongdoer. If Hangwani Maumela is indeed the president’s nephew as reported; why did the president not intervene? The president loves to quote Mandela.

In which world would Mandela allow his nephew to commit such crimes as a sitting president? Why did the president not use his prerogative as an uncle and especially his presidential power to halt Maumela’s contracts or ensure that all monies were restored to the hospital? It is both his responsibility as a president and as a very distant uncle.

 We are not unfamiliar with Cyril Ramaphosa’s inaction. It has brought much dysfunction in the country. Maumela perhaps had to fall on his own like the country free falls because of corruption. Unless a Mkhwanazi holds a press conference in military gear.

 I wrote “Worse than informers” on The Daily Dispatch to call out ANC corruption during the Zuma years. Black South Africans die actual deaths daily in hospitals because someone had to have a few Lamborghinis. My mother died at Frere hospital last year. My sister compared the ward to something out of a war-torn country somewhere on the continent. The nurses have become cruel from stress. The doctors are in despair because medical equipment is broken or unavailable. 

Staff are overworked and exhausted while young doctors wait outside in protest begging for an opportunity to heal. The system of corruption that buys Lamborghinis instead of employing doctors only leads to unnecessary deaths.

I watched doctors return patients back to their beds because machines were all broken and there was nothing they could do. Corruption costs lives. A month before that, I had witnessed a grandmother beg a nurse to accept her gift of freshly picked spinach because she was so moved by that nurse’s service. Weeks later, I would sometimes leave the hospital in tears because of the scarcity of kindness and just utter despair.

Corruption is as cruel as informers whose wealth depended on handing over freedom fighters to apartheid mercenaries. My grandfather, Paulos Thambile Dlanga was in the PAC. He died after torture because an informer tipped apartheid agents. A gifted leader and scientist forever lost to society.

In the 80s, black communities eventually revolted against informers but during the democratic dispensation they thrive unchallenged. General Mkhwanazi attributes some to going as far as to destroy our communities with drugs. An Uber driver in East London said something similar a few years ago. His brother, a police officer, told him that he was stopped from jailing drug lords. He had jailed a Nigerian drug lord who operated in Quigney; he received a call straight from top bosses to immediately release the drug lord. He was stunned. He said the drug lords are arrogant because of this. It sounded unbelievable and yet it explained why drugs were so rampant.

 Mkhwanazi is fighting for those police officers who want to do their jobs. Had he not come forward, he too would have been complicit in the destruction of our society.

 Police and health officials are face to face with every social ill. It is they and churches who know this country better than politicians.

Churches are part of the solution and the crisis. Churches open schools, health facilities, feed the hungry and bring aid during disasters. They do it quietly with no applause as they should. Churches are also part of the crisis.

Christian Defenders recently protested against CRL Section 22 because they felt that their religious rights were being threatened. In Mozambique, ISIS beheaded 30 Christians. Understandably, we should not wait until we are beheaded before we can feel like our right to worship Jesus freely is under threat.

But where is the church in this story of corruption that plagues our country and has destroyed institutions and communities? Where is a protest for that? Or is the church happy to accept large sums of money from sometimes corrupt individuals without confronting some of them with the truth when necessary? Not every church is the same.

Some churches are part of the social ills. Other churches are the ones picking up the broken pieces and doing what the government fails to do. I think of RUCC in Mthatha who often take doctors to rural villages and brought supplies to people during heavy lockdowns in COVID.

Proximity to the corrupt is complicity if you know about it. Achan in the story of Joshua is like the informers during apartheid who caused deaths of freedom fighters which led to the defeat of black aspirations for freedom and prosperity.

I do not support stoning or burning or mob justice. The point is that whether it’s China or the Old Testament, proximity with the corrupt is punished because it is complicity if you do nothing about it. Being close enough gives you the responsibility to act as we saw with General Mkhwanazi. Whether you are the president, a family member or the church – it is time to rid the country of corruption because it has brought enough destruction.

Dlanga is a writer and social justice activist within the faith sector.