Corruption is the dimmer of hope in South Africa. It is not just the looting of funds; it is in the number of people going to bed without food; it is in the lack of a quality education; it is in the death of children in pit toilets; it is in people’s frustration.

The current student protest action at South Africa’s tertiary institutions is largely as a consequence of corruption. Students were promised a free education in 1994. If you cut short the dreams of young people, you constrain what South Africa can become. The current student action is a continuation of 1976 and the desire for a quality education we deserve. We need to honour that struggle and Government needs to listen. Our crumbling economy shows that we are not doing things right – from our collapsing health care system to high student fees at tertiary institutions.

And now we have seemingly left it to our students to fight this socio-economic system. Corruption is about enriching the individual, not looking after the collective, and it has a horrific cascading effect that impacts on everyone, especially the poor.

Corruption has been given a political face, but it also lives in the home where people don’t pay for rates or electricity; where businesses dodge taxes; and when institutions and public officials loot funds that are designated to help the poor and vulnerable. But in the absence of consequence, why would they stop?

Part of the problem is an absence of empathy and a moral deficit in those who are corrupt. They don’t care that this is a price that South Africa and the world will be paying for in years to come. We will not reap the rewards of the investment we could have been making today for tomorrow. We will continue to be a nation of dependents instead of taxpayers.

We have arrived at the point where there are more unemployed young people in South Africa than those who are working. If that is not a crisis, I don’t know what is? It means that those of us who are fortunate to work, also have to shoulder more of a tax burden.

We have to hold Government to account. At Activate Change Drivers we are rolling out a civic education programme across the country so people can hold those in positions of power accountable. Emotive responses aren’t working. Government lets people burn tyres in the streets and the next day they clean them up. People need to understand the power of their vote and we need to equip citizens to have the courage and boldness to hold politicians to account. Citizen accountability is very important.

Not doing anything is not going to change anything for anyone at the end of the day. It has always been the few who have been able to act as catalysts for change. Perhaps we are looking in the wrong spaces. We are looking in media and at political parties. Those who will shift the needle are the young people who work tirelessly every day, often without a salary, towards developing their communities - including the students who continuously engage their peers and those in power to advocate for change.

South African youth believe that endemic corruption in South Africa is stealing their futures and destroying their dreams. This was clear from a panel discussion on corruption that Activate hosted recently with young people from our network of over 4 500 youth trained in community leadership and social activism. Activate will also be launching a campaign this year to galvanise youth voices against corruption, called #youthagainstcorruption.

Many young people are frustrated as they see funding drying up for student loans and the dream of free tertiary education escaping, while billions are stolen in corruption to profit a few. They are frustrated as they feel youth voices are not being heard on critical issues, such as corruption, and believe that corruption steals from the next generation, from their futures. It crushes their dreams – whether it is dreams of a free education for all; or just going to school when PPE corruption meant many schools could not reopen when there were no more funds left.

Activate Change Drivers is in the process of refining a civic education toolkit. We have had contributions from various stakeholders on the ground who see the value of what is needed. Democracy is the people, but we need to get to the point of radical change. We have become a society that operates in silos. Everything is falling apart at the foundation. The socio-economic divide has made us unrelatable to each other. We have grouped ourselves according to our own struggles and we need to find that connection point once more. We need to find the unity in our diversity once more. It is the only way we will fight corruption; and not one leader is going to get it right on their own.

Written by Tebogo Suping, Executive Director, ACTIVATE! Change Drivers