Mbeki links corruption, poverty

from News 24

Johannesburg - Corruption distorts human values and freedom in all countries, President Thabo Mbeki said on Monday.

"... Corruption in all its forms and manifestations, constitute a process that negates the democracy and development the ordinary people need to transcend the boundaries of their world of poverty, underdevelopment and disempowerment," the president said, opening the 5th Global Forum on Anti-Corruption at Sandton in Johannesburg.

The conference was being held in Africa for the first time.

Mbeki said anti corruption instruments alone were not sufficient to solve the problem. They had to be firmly located within a development and anti-poverty discourse.

"The anti-corruption discourse therefore is inseparable from broader goals of socio-economic development. They must be firmly located within a development and anti-poverty discourse that promotes citizen engagement, a people's contract that binds the democratic state to the citizenry and promotes the value of human solidarity and public accountability."

Over 1 500 delegates from more than 100 countries arrived for the four-day conference on preventing and fighting corruption.

They included ministers, heads of anti-corruption and law enforcement agencies, and officials dealing with governance, money laundering and customs.

Surveys released last week conducted by Markinor and the University of Stellenbosch found that at least half of South Africa's adult population believed corruption was widespread among public officials.