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had written articles pertaining to matters such as street children, the employment of consultants, the rates system and the decision of EXCO to support the holding of the South African municipal games in Durban. Sutcliffe (2005) stated that the articles failed to provide the facts, quoted unnamed sources telling untruths, and had only obtained comment from the DA. Thus, in response, the Municipality stated it would no longer have any official dealings with the Editor or journalists from the Daily News. This included the placing of advertising in the Daily News as it would constitute a clear abuse of public funds (Sutcliffe, 2005). This exemplifies one instance in which political affiliations negatively affected the freedom of press in the eThekwini Municipality.
Some of the interviewed councillors contended that the quality of journalists and journalism has also declined dramatically over the years. The media, specifically the newspapers, are subject to many inefficiencies resulting in a poor effort in the fight against corruption. They suffer from a lack of investigative capacity, idle reporters and shoestring budgets:
I‟m a former editor of a newspaper … newspapers are suffering from a lack of capacity, they should be investigating every bit of corruption they can get their hands on and they are not … the lack of capacity, not investing enough money in reporters and they don‟t have the will anymore (DA 5, 7 May 2015).
In so many local daily newspapers the standard of journalism is very poor … much of the time it is sensationalist and they don‟t dig deep enough and will take an off the cuff remark and make it news … I‟ve had to phone journalists up and ask them where did you get that information because you weren‟t even there (DA 9, 28 May 2015).
Papers used to be good, journalists were very investigative, now the quality of journalists is very bad, it‟s like the tabloid … you just read a story that is rehashed (ANC 3, 3 June 2015).
Holistically, corruption is a challenging issue for the media to tackle; threats of litigation have made media houses fearful to challenge individuals who are deemed to be corrupt. Since its 52nd National Conference in Polokwane in December 2007, the ANC has threatened to curb access to information and to introduce a Press Tribunal (where the state will be judge, jury and executor) to indict errant journalists. These measures have emerged amidst reports of escalating corruption and controversial public decisions which have implicated the ANC elite. As the ANC fails to deliver to the poor and disadvantaged, and the independent press exposes how hundreds of billions of Rand have been squandered through corruption, exacerbating socio-spatial inequalities of the apartheid era, some
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senior ANC officials labeled the media as the „opposition‟. Hence, blaming the messenger for the message (Maharaj, 2012).
4.7 Conclusion
Corruption is a disease that has plagued the eThekwini Municipality. Due to its complex and elusive nature a „Corruption Conundrum‟ has arisen, exemplifying the difficulty in characterising and proving corruption. Interviewed councillors and bureaucrats identified numerous casual factors attributing to the rise in corruption in Durban. These largely pertained to self-enrichment, greed, power, politics and a lack of moral obligation by councillors, officials and citizens alike. A key focus of this study was the public procurement sector.
Mismanagement, fruitless, irregular and wasteful expenditure typifies the SCM. Councillors and officials lack expertise and the basic knowledge of legislation, resulting in the abuse of SCM legislation and the MFMA. This was evident from the abuse of Section 36 and the lack of disclosure of business interests by councillors. The blatant abuse and manipulation of SCM legislation has led to mismanagement and poor service delivery to citizens. This is a direct infringement of the human rights of citizens of the eThekwini Municipality.
Various social, economic and political implications of corruption in the eThekwini Municipality were identified to illustrate how corruption actively undermines democracy and creates a society in which inequality prevails, where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Since the release of the Manase Report, the eThekwini Municipality has publicly declared that it is dedicated to the fight against corruption. Local government has established numerous committees, strategies and commissions to curb corruption. NGOs and media entities have also made an attempt to aid the fight against corruption. However, these measures have not even scratched the surface to expose and curb corruption.
The siphoning of money from the public purse to accommodate the lavish lifestyles of those in power and their allies, has reached alarming levels. Tender manipulation, cadre deployment and crony protection have resulted in numerous lucrative contracts being repeatedly allocated to the selected élite. Tender abuse persists in the Municipality and irregular expenditure is the norm, due to the continuous awarding of tenders through section 36 (Manda, 2015b).
The South African Constitution guarantees socio-economic, political and environmental rights to all living in South Africa. However, corruption undermines the rights of all those who rely on government for their basic services. Legislation to prevent and curb corruption has not been enforced in the eThekwini Municipality. Local government need to adopt mechanisms and strategies to ensure that the policies and legislation that are put in place are implemented effectively. Policies and
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legislation need to be re-evaluated to ensure that the fight against corruption is spurred on and to improve the quality of life of the citizens of eThekwini Municipality.