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.South Africa’s issue of Immorality
By Anele Nduzulwana
Conformity to the rules, or the quality of being in accord with the standards of right and good conduct is how morality is general perceived.
The definition, according to oxford dictionary, suggest that morality is a particular system of values and principal conduct.
However, the high Rate of violent in townships, disruption of the State Of The Nation address and the chaos that erupt in parliament. Don’t suggest the definition of morality as an ideology that is practised in South Africa.
Government officials violate constitution, Member of Parliament refuse to adhere to house rules and the ruling party is not seemingly able to come with solutions that serve common good when conflict erupt.
A journalism student at Dut, Zethembe Sibiya commented “South Africa is more infatuated with power. We (citizens) are more concerned about the outside world than our own country. We strive more to be like European countries, as a result we forget the values of Ubuntu and moral principles our forefathers lived by”.
South African crime statistics recorded that there has been in increase in rate of most significant categories of crime and violence. Street or public robbery increased by 8, 598% cases to a total of 69, 074 incident. While there is a record of 202 business burglaries and 79, 109 incidents of fraud and corruption between 2013/2014.The statistics show high rate of robbery, violence, fraud and corruption.
The Thursday evening of February 15th, The members of the Economic Freedom Fighters were forcible removed from the chambers after they disrupted the state of the nation address by demanding answers on when will the president pay back the money he owes for the unduly benefits in upgrade of the Nkandla homestead. Eff made chaos in parliament in its earliest days as a political party.
The matter raises controversy about how the constitution and house rules are applied to maintain dignity of the parliament. Some acclaim the Eff for standing up against the ruling party, others criticise the party for causing havoc while most are critical of the president as they believe him to be the source of the turmoil.
The President also prove not to be a law abiding leader. He’s been accused in more than few criminal cases, he shows no sign of accountability and uses violent tactics in dealing with matters that threatens the comfort of ruling party. He violated the constitution by allowing the armed police into the house and got into physical altercation to remove opposition from the chamber. This showed lack of morality, accountability and weakness in countries leadership.
The concept of morality on this matter can be confusing as one would argue that what happened in parliament was political, the parties were acting on defending the constitution hence moral ethics are irrelevant to the context.
But resorting to acts that can result to violence and making threats that disturb peace is violation of the constitution. Democratic country is ought to be a peaceful society where matters are rationally resolved with constructive critics rather than threats and violence. Hence the issue of morality should be inclusive on the subject of violating the constitution.
South African townships has the highest rate in violent and crime statics. Xenophobic attacks and unrest in most black communities is the evidence of the lack of immorality in the country. The Malalumele protests and the looting of foreign shops, for instance, is complete disregard of the law but people resort to such act as if it’s the only option of voicing their frustration.
Nelson Mandela’s values are undermined and none of country leaders prove to have inherited his leadership skills by solving the issues wisely.
“There are still some within our country who wrongly believe they can make a contribution to the cause of justice and peace by clinging to the shibboleths that have been proved to spell to nothing but disaster” he said in his speech when he receive the Nobel Prize award in 1993.
