Africa-Press – Eswatini. Albeit knowledge of the fact that a political campaign requires money, I contend that the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) should ensure to divorce money from politics.
Campaigns should be within the parameters of the law and all runners for political office should declare their sources of funds. This ought to be done to protect the integrity of public office and ensure that those who bear public office are not bought by the owners of capital, unrestricted and unmonitored funding opens the bearers of office to corruption.
Corruption vs campaign funding
Corruption can be defined as the abuse of entrusted power for private gain. Corruption erodes trust, weakens democracy, hampers economic development and further exacerbates inequality, poverty, social division and the environmental crisis. Political corruption, on the other hand, is the use of power by government officials or their network contacts for illegitimate private gain. It is for this fact that politics must be divorced from money, purely because there is no free lunch on this earth. In a world without any legal bounds for campaign financing, the politician receiving the support, in most cases, has to reciprocate and usually this is through the utilization of public resources to support the needs and wants of a few individuals. Political corruption is tantamount to the sale of political office and political power. It is grossly disheartening to learn from a seasoned politician that money cannot be divorced from politics. Albeit the rebound leaning on the constitutionality of campaign funding to support the argument, I contend that as a member of the House, we expected the House to champion the course of regulation and enforcement of the constitutional provision. It is sad that as a nation, we have since normalized political corruption.
We have normalised corruption
It is a common secret that some senators bought political office, some Senate losers have come out in the press to state that they want their money back. Granted, in the law there has to be due diligence and due process before a person is found guilty, but the nation needs the Anti-Corruption Commission to move faster on the issue. This is an old issue and it is a common secret; as a nation we have sadly normalized that political office costs money. To my ignorant mind it is unfathomable how we allow a few individuals to corrupt the electoral college and normalize that a Member of Parliament (MP) will accept money from an individual seeking a Senate seat. At this point I contend that this is no longer campaign financing but rather its overt financing and in Eswatini this has become such a norm.
The rules that bind public servants from receiving gifts and any form of financial benefits should apply in this case. I strongly believe that it is inappropriate for an MP, who constitutes the electoral college, to accept such payments; the nation entrusts the MPs with their vote to make decisions on their behalf and the election of senators is usually the first decision that they have to make and it is sad that this decision is related to personal financial gain at the expense of the electorate. This underlines why as a nation we struggle so much with the scourge of corruption, we have normalized it even at the highest level of authority in the country. If MPs lack the moral compass to uphold the integrity of the office they hold, then emaSwati have no hope in dealing with the 10 per cent syndrome, having to pay to expedite the processing of certain documents in government ministries.
Economic costs
In 2022 the PAC reported that government lost approximately US$5.5 million per month due to corruption in government ministries and departments, averaging a loss of US$66 million a year. If we plucked all loose holes, we would be in a position to double the monthly elderly grant and still have a surplus to invest in other sectors such as education. These are the funds we require to improve service delivery for our people. Alternatively the funds we lose to corruption could be used to resuscitate the health sector or restore some level of dignity to higher education in the country. Losses to corruption erode the country’s ability to utilise resources efficiently, especially in cases where it is inbuilt into the procurement process, the public ends up paying an inflated price with a corruption premium. If the purchaser and the seller collude to infuse 10 per cent into the tendering process, eventually the product will be supplied at a high price, the transaction passes as a legitimate transaction. In reality the monthly losses due to corruption are higher than the US$5.5 million per month.
Punish political corruption
There is a very strong need for the Judiciary, regulators and public protecting entities to punish corruption. The nation has lost so much to corruption and as we stand, the health sector is collapsing because we have grossly normalized corruption. Stomping out the problem of corruption, which permeates our society, requires that the law hit hard on those who have the ability to castrate it. EmaSwati noted during Sibaya that someone castrated the ACC Act so it would not bite them.
Source: times
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