Regrettably, a few individuals in the liberation movement either do not have any – or lose all – sense of compunction and shame, reflecting what are essentially psychopathic tendencies. In some instances, corruptors resort to blackmail, including through down payments that leave the beneficiary hopelessly entangled.
Cape Times on 26 May 2016
The issue of state capture relates to what the ANC characterises as “sins of incumbency”. How do liberation movements lose their sense of idealism? And how insidious can this become?
Some of the factors derive from the legacy of an inherited colonial state which relied on patronage on a grand scale, illegal sanctions-busting and corrupt extra-judicial security operations. There are also matters to do with how public service is rendered, leaving citizens at the mercy of uncaring officials. Tenuous conditions of an emergent “middle class” seeking to mimic the lifestyles of a trendsetting white community also come into play.
