Our economic future depends upon shared values of equality, honesty, and human dignity
Unsettling recent events in the Middle East suggest the world has entered, like it or not, a new era of geopolitical uncertainty marked by unilateralism and untethered foreign policy.
But anybody bemoaning the decline of international law and order should look closer to home – at our own shaky ground.
Multiple depressing local news headlines over the past week suggest we can’t claim the moral high ground in matters of criminal justice. Nor do we seem to have moved much beyond the notion of Might is Right.
Last week a Khayelitsha shopping mall was temporarily closed after coming under attack from a local business forum. The forum, claiming to represent local businesses, held some shopping centre staff hostage to amplify its demand for work contracts. It claims local service providers are unfairly excluded from work opportunities despite having the requisite skills.
Evidently the Forum considers extortion a legitimate means of securing contracts, and they are not alone. Similar tactics are employed far and wide, often with violent intent.
A second story that surfaced this week tells of a different kind of skulduggery. Former executives of the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) feature in a forensic report detailing the plundering of state resources by allegedly dodgy contractors.
It’s a measure of our high threshold for criminality that neither of these reports are particularly surprising.
However tolerance of unlawful behaviour is a recipe for ever more unlawful behaviour, and a shortcut back to the type of state-sanctioned dystopia we had hoped to consign to history.
The rule of law is an essential ingredient for sustainable economic growth, particularly in the current context where we urgently need to attract investors. Storming of shopping malls will have the opposite effect, as will unbridled crony capitalism. As civil society we should demand ethical leadership capable of shaping a better world.
Our economic future depends upon shared values of equality, honesty, and human dignity. In a world where these appear to be in short supply, all we can do is to begin at home.
John Lawson
CEO of the Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry