South Africa

Well its been confirmed :

A further two accused have been added to the indictment against former deputy president Jacob Zuma, the National Prosecuting Authority said on Friday. Spokesperson Makhosini Nkosi said Thint Holding (Southern Africa), formerly known as Thomson-CSF, and Thint, formerly known as Thomson, will be accused numbers two and three respectively. The two companies will be represented by Pierre Jean-Marie Robert Moynot.

 

It's about time big business also got to eat a piece of the "corruption is NOT cool" pie. The actions of people like Jay-Z and Schabir Shaik leave a bad taste in the mouth but what message do we send if only the corrupted get punished while the corrupters receive a get out of jail free card for testifying. We need to send out the message loud and clear that corruption by all parties will not be tolerated and will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

Last week I watched an outstanding documentary "The Smartest Guys in the Room", about the rise and fall of Enron under Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling. The level of corporate greed and total collapse of ethics in the company is stunning in its enormity, and all this happened with a sort of wink-wink-nudge-nudge by their accountants Arthur Andersen and major Wall Street Investment Banks. What the producers showed is how, if a culture of corruption and deceit is allowed to grow and propogate eventually the beast becomes too big to control and you have built a house of cards on quicksand. Witness the massive implosion of Enron, Arthur Andersen and WorldCom.

Corporate malfeasance when partnered with our public officials must not be allowed to grow -- the buck must stop here.