Corruption, colonialism and the apartheid state (1652–1976) Although this report focuses on the period from 1976 to 1994, it is important to contextualise corruption, thus the examination of the preceding era. This is equally relevant to help understand howcorruption before 1994 affects South Africa today. White supremacy in South Africa has always been premised on greed and corruption. Ideology has often been misused as a pretext for what constitutes corrupt behaviour. The first attempt by Europeans to ‘settle’ at the Cape was a decision of the Dutch East India Company—a forerunner of modern-day multinational corporations—which required a replenishment station that would aide its business forays to the East and to Indonesia in particular. The success of the station at the Cape of Good Hope required the subjugation of local inhabitants, to the benefit of the company’s Dutch headquarters. The subsequent British colonial administrations were no less subtle when wars were raged and people subjugated (both black and white) in order to acquire access to the country’s wealth of minerals and land. Although sharply critical of the white English for entrenching poverty among white Afrikaans-speakers, Prof. Sampie Terreblanche points out that some more introspection is required. As far back as the nineteenth century, ‘Notables’, such as Generals Botha, Cronje, Koos de la Rey and others, had as many as 20–30 large farms. The Transvaal in the late nineteenth century was a feudal society in which the Voortrekkers each ‘received’ a farm for which they had to pay regular tax. However, when they defaulted on their tax payments, the farms were put up for sale. With the connivance of the local Landrost (magistrate) the ‘Notables’ were often the first to be informed of such sales and so they became landlords with many farms in their possession. When gold was discovered, many of them would become involved in corruption. Untitled
Posted on: Sat, 22 Nov 2014 07:03:58 +0000
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