Former Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka has warned about escalating corruption in the country, saying it was on an industrial scale.
Mlambo-Ngcuka also called for those in leadership positions to clamp down on crime because it has spiralled out of control, with law-abiding citizens living in fear.
The former deputy president and head of UN Women said a lot of wrong things have been happening in the country.
She said the other issue was the lack of service delivery which leaves many people frustrated and angry.
But it was time to start fixing everything that was wrong and this includes fighting crime, corruption and delivering services to the people.
Mlambo-Ngcuka, who was addressing the National School of Government on Thursday, said the time to act was now.
It was not too late to take action against all these things.
But she said corruption was rampant in the country.
“The fact that in our country we have corruption of an industrial scale. We steal like there is no tomorrow. Public servants have no respect for the public purse,” said Mlambo-Ngcuka.
On crime, she said it has gone out of control. The country has reached new lows on crime levels.
“Crime in South Africa and the extent to which the protection of citizens has just evaporated and the fact that you see crimes being committed that are predictable, you ask yourself, we have got laws against these crimes and these actions, how is it possible that this crime is committed? It’s so widespread, you don’t see anyone taking responsibility being sanctioned,” said Mlambo-Ngcuka.
On service delivery, she said the people were justified to be angry when no services were delivered.
This is one issue that needs to be attended by those in elected positions.
“You have to think about service delivery, I don’t need to start. We all know how painful it is that so many are not able to get the services that they deserve and the overall impact that this has on the functionality of the state.
“I don’t know whether we are a failed state or we are on our way going there, but we are in that vocabulary. It pains my heart.
“I know this is not something we can throw on the public servants alone, this is something that requires the elected officials to do their work to be true to the oath of office that they take. This requires us as citizens to respect the laws of the country,” said Mlambo-Ngcuka.
It was never too late for the elected leaders to act on these things.
Politics