Corruption is the explosive to kill a nation

Helene Zille, granddaughter of Heinrich Zille the famous Berlin/Germany genre painter and former Mayor of Cape Town said in 2014: "The street and water system under the former Colonial Master the UK were in better shape than under the government of the ANC, African National Congress." The ANC criticized her and the made statement not because they thought it was not true but because she drew a parallel to the old Colonial Master.

Africans inside the continent and outside of it are well-known for their jealousy. Blacks most of the time do not trust each other knowing black characters. The lack of honest cooperation is a vital aspect of why their economies are failing. To pull off a successful business many hands-on decks are needed. While each of the employees is specialized in a certain area of a company the focus on the common goal and trust in the work and integrity of each of them is the glue that keeps the company or project together and to move forward.

Africans go to church on Sundays and Sunday afternoons visit their witchcraft masters to pay for their offerings and animal or human organ sacrifices. This ancestral blood lineage disaster is passed on from generation to generation and like body sweat transpires in each meeting of Africans across the table.

The cooperation mentality of the white man does not mean that corruption is not in their systems. Even in e.g. Europe corruption exists in various forms and on various levels. The fact that white people cooperate with each other closer than Africans do enables them to detect and uncover elements of corruption much faster and more swiftly. The Mafia in Italy is a household name for bribing politicians and killing of state representatives. Eventually when corruption is uncovered the law system takes over to see the offenders behind bars regardless of their position in society. The law and law enforcement work even for Presidents, Prime Ministers, and Ministers. The spirit of cooperation among whites works well in such exposed cases while in African countries friends, family and buddy protection mentality sets in helping to uncover future criminal activities. In such exposed cases the cooperation spirit of the white man is working well while in African countries the spirit of family, friends and buddy protection sets in and overshadows the situation to ensure future criminal activities.

In Africa, the situation is totally different. Convicted prominent corruption offenders bribe their way out of jail. Corruption at a large scale is only possible when the system has holes like a Dutch cheese and up the hierarchy, strong men have taken notice of the bad deeds with the interest their own corruption might never see the light of the day and possibly be revealed by the convicted offenders.

How to tackle the problem? The first line of defense is education from childhood to adulthood therefore permanently. The second line of defense is the critical systems in place to supervise processes of potential corruption. The third line of defense is not tackled but obvious people around the offenders who benefit from corruption and harm caused. Presidents who steal national assets to offer wives an exceptional lifestyle never possible with the honest work of their husbands are first to know their husbands are corrupt. In most cases of corruption, it are men who are corrupt mostly not wives.

The introduction of systematic corruption by the white colonial masters into their colonial territories is not an ostrich dream come true to bow the head in shame and hide it in the Saharan desert's loose sand rather a manageable constant challenge. To hold all beneficiaries of a single person collectively to account for his corruption activities is a strong and decisive as much as a morally justified and effective tool to lower the cases of corruption. Wives first signal any signs of irregularities even before systems can detect them. When they know they enjoy more wealth than they should based on their husband's honest income they are corporates of a crime committed - enjoying the rotten fruits.

A bullet kills a human while corruption kills a nation. To bring down corruption to a minimum level the right values, educational efforts, laws, and law enforcement as much as the right implementation of correct strategies are needed.