Signs of hope for the post-state capture era

SA’s apparently unstoppable decline is darkening the mood of many of her citizens. In a Business Day analysis, Deon Rossouw questions whether we are collectively sliding down a slippery slope towards a disaster situation from which there is no return? Rossouw, who is CEO of The Ethics Institute, notes that the decline in SA is attributable to many factors, but there is wide consensus that the corruption associated with state capture did the lion’s share of the damage. ‘It is all too human to assume that the future is a perpetuation of the present. But history tells a very different story. A dramatic turnaround can be achieved. Think about China after Mao, Germany after Hitler, and SA itself after apartheid. Rebuilding trust after a prolonged period of corruption is a long and arduous journey. The 2020 Edelman Trust Barometer, despite its gloomy findings on SA, provides insight into what it takes to restore trust in institutions. Two factors determine whether people trust an institution: competence, defined as the ability to deliver on promises, and ethics, defined as doing the right thing and working to improve society.’ Rossouw believes that since the start of Cyril Ramaphosa’s presidency, a great deal of serious effort has been expended to restore competence in key state institutions, including the NPA and SARS. ‘The same goes for state-owned companies such as Eskom, Transnet and SAA. Also, in the private sector, the focus has been on restoring trust in the competence of companies such as KPMG, SAP and others that have been implicated in state capture.’