'Corruption' - A Western Paradigm?

treason however isn't
selling your country to the French government (a Western power) is not mere corruption
 
For the Inglish peoples :p :

http://www.citypress.co.za/politics/corruption-western-thing-2/

Zuma: Corruption is a Western thing

One of the reasons President Jacob Zuma believed criminal charges against him relating to the arms deal should be dropped was because corruption is only a crime in a “Western paradigm”.

And even if it was a crime, Zuma’s lawyers apparently argued, it was a crime where there are “no victims”.

These startling insights into Zuma’s 2009 written representations to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) are contained in a detailed NPA analysis document, which City Press has obtained.

This synopsis is attached to a memorandum dated March 3 2009 and drawn up by Advocate Billy Downer, the senior state prosecutor who was seconded to the now defunct Directorate of Special Operations (DSO, also known as the Scorpions) for the Zuma investigation.

At the time, Zuma had already been elected president of the ANC but was not yet president of the country.

Zuma’s lawyer, Michael Hulley, made representations to the NPA for the charges against him to be dropped.

The document indicates that page 22 of Zuma’s 88-page written submission deals with one of Zuma’s arguments, which the prosecutors restate as follows: “Western paradigm brands this criminal.” “This” is probably a reference to the types of loans Zuma’s ex-financial adviser, Schabir Shaik, claimed to have innocently given him. Shaik was eventually convicted.
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Here comes a controversial opinion, sorry. From a traditionally African perspective, which is paternalistic and feudal, what the western mind perceives as corrupt is just business as usual. The African tribal paradigm is intrinsically corrupt.
 
Nick333 said:
Here comes a controversial opinion, sorry. From a traditionally African perspective, which is paternalistic and feudal, what the western mind perceives as corrupt is just business as usual. The African tribal paradigm is intrinsically corrupt.
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According to Western standards, yes. But does Zuma see himself as a king? Is he tired of being a servant of King Goodwill Zwelithini?
 
MickeyD said:
According to Western standards, yes. But does Zuma see himself as a king? Is he tired of being a servant of King Goodwill Zwelithini?
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I'm not sure what your point is but, as Libs already ore or less said in TK, South Africa has already accepted more than a few western concepts as the norm. Zuma seems to be taking ownership of the ones that suit him and trying to disown the ones that don't.

I guess what he's really saying is that white people introduced corruption to Africa. The reality is that paternalism and feudalism is more or less identical to corruption in effect once you accept western democracy and governance.

Actually, I doubt Zuma knows what he means any more than the rest of us do.
 
Nick333 said:
I

Actually, I doubt Zuma knows what he means any more than the rest of us do.
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We know exactly what he means. He's playing the race/colonialism card to try to justify his theft from the poor people of this country.
 
Is Zuma not an ordained preacher, and does his bible not say 'thou shalt not steal (whether thy be of western origin or not)' .. ?

Begs the question what other western definitions he's struggling with. Certainly makes a mockery of all his previous speaches proclaiming government is stepping up the fight against corruption. We knew it was all words no action, this just explains the thinking behind what is essentailly an African thing.

Personally, I think he's just trolling us like in his quest for avoiding accountability he just played the ultimate 'dumb' card.
 
Press Release: DA
Mmusi Maimane
http://www.da.org.za/2014/10/corruption-zuma-paradigm-western-paradigm/

Corruption is a Zuma paradigm not a “Western paradigm”

The Democratic Alliance has noted, with great concern, reports of President Jacob Zuma’s 2009 representations to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), in which he negates corruption as a victimless crime, which finds its roots in the Western world.

I will be writing to the President to demand clarity about this disturbing position he took and whether he agrees with existing legislation.

President Zuma evidently sees corruption as something that should be swept under the carpet, without repercussions.

With these comments, it is clear that President Zuma speaks with a forked tongue when he commits to tackling corruption, especially in the public sector.

It is no wonder that the President and ANC Members of Parliament (MPs) show a severe disregard for the role of the Public Protector and her remedial action steps, because, in their warped view, corruption is not a matter that deserves any remedy.

The preamble to the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Act states that “The illicit acquisition of personal wealth can be particularly damaging to democratic institutions, national economies, ethical values and the rule of law.”

With this in mind, it is difficult not to conclude that the President condones lawlessness. And his evasion of having his “day in court” for the 783 charges of corruption, fraud, money laundering and racketeering, indicate the he will do anything to ensure that his “license to loot” is not revoked.

Corruption under Jacob Zuma is the cancer that eats away at opportunity and growth.

Furthermore, my Office has written to the Office of the Deputy President to request a meeting with Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, in his capacity as Leader of Government Business, to discuss the most concerning matter of the erosion of Executive accountably, among other urgent matters.
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Zuma wanted charges dropped because corruption is a Western thing

Zuma wanted charges dropped because corruption is a Western thing
Charl du Plessis and Carien du Plessis @City_Press 12 October 2014 15:00

One of the reasons President Jacob Zuma believed criminal charges against him relating to the arms deal should be dropped was because corruption is only a crime in a “Western paradigm”.

And even if it was a crime, Zuma’s lawyers apparently argued, it was a crime where there are “no victims”.

These startling insights into Zuma’s 2009 written representations to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) are contained in a detailed NPA analysis document, which City Press has obtained.

This synopsis is attached to a memorandum dated March 3 2009 and drawn up by Advocate Billy Downer, the senior state prosecutor who was seconded to the now defunct Directorate of Special Operations (DSO, also known as the Scorpions) for the Zuma investigation.

At the time, Zuma had already been elected president of the ANC but was not yet president of the country. Zuma’s lawyer, Michael Hulley, made representations to the NPA for the charges against him to be dropped.

The document indicates that page 22 of Zuma’s 88-page written submission deals with one of Zuma’s arguments, which the prosecutors restate as follows: “Western paradigm brands this criminal.”

“This” is probably a reference to the types of loans Zuma’s ex-financial adviser, Schabir Shaik, claimed to have innocently given him. Shaik was eventually convicted.

In their scathing response to this point, the prosecutors write: “The law prescribes that it is criminal. Until the law is amended to provide that institutionalised cronyism is not criminal, the ‘Western paradigm’ will have to be accepted.”

The response to the argument that there are no victims to the crime is similarly dismissive: “There are victims. The general public.”

Based on this synopsis, Downer’s memorandum emphatically recommends that the NPA rejects Zuma’s representations.

“Our conclusion is that even in respect of those issues regarding the merits that Zuma does address, there is no adequate answer to the state’s allegations.

“If anything, Zuma’s representations confirm the structure of the general corruption.”

The document also reveals that Hulley apparently argued that one of the considerations that militated against Zuma’s prosecution was that it would cause “general unrest through dissatisfaction with the NPA”.

Downer and the other prosecutors labelled this “blackmail”. “The argument is just as much that not prosecuting will lead to mass dissatisfaction.”

Downer makes a similar point about the so-called spy tapes – intercepted recordings of telephone conversations between the ex-head of the DSO, Leonard McCarthy, and former NPA head Bulelani Ngcuka – saying they amounted “to little more than blackmail”.

“They should be reduced to writing under oath and presented in the normal course, if Zuma wishes to continue to rely on them.”

This week, City Press was granted access by the court to various documents that have been handed to the DA in its court application to have acting NPA head Mokotedi Mpshe’s decision to drop corruption charges against Zuma overturned.

Included among them is the memorandum referred to by Ngcuka in the Sunday Times last week, which he used to accuse Mpshe of misleading the public about the reasons the charges were dropped.

The Scorpions memorandum Ngcuka referred to, dated December 6 2007, makes it clear that Mpshe had already made a “final decision” that Zuma would not be charged until after the ANC’s 2007 elective conference in Polokwane.

This appears to contradict what Mpshe told South Africans when he announced that charges had been dropped.

In his statement announcing the decision, Mpshe argued the timing of charges against Zuma was manipulated by McCarthy for an illegitimate purpose, namely to influence the Polokwane conference.

Mpshe used the spy tapes, in which they discussed the timing, as a justification for this.

But Mpshe’s “final decision” appears to have been made at least a week before one of the more pertinent discussions between McCarthy and Ngcuka regarding the supposed timing of the matter.

In the memo, Downer expresses the bitter unhappiness of the Scorpions team following Mpshe’s decision, revealing that the team had even contemplated resigning.

“We have repeatedly motivated in the strongest possible terms why it is particularly important in the instant case that the prosecutorial decisions must be made purely for prosecutorial reasons,” he writes.

“The team feels so strongly about these principles that we have given serious consideration to terminating our involvement in this investigation.”

In this memo, Downer notes that Mpshe had already approved an application for Zuma to be charged with racketeering.

This application, also among the documents obtained by City Press, contained a prescient appraisal by the prosecuting team of what was to come.

The NPA advocates predict it is unlikely that Zuma would fight the case against him on the merits, which had proven “disastrous” for his former financial adviser Schabir Shaik.

“It is anticipated that they will continue to use every legal device and stratagem to prevent the matter coming to trial.

“These will include an application for a permanent stay of prosecution [and consequent appeals], attacks on the bona fides and integrity of the prosecution team, the DSO and the NPA, [and] the use of the media to ramp up popular and political opposition to the prosecution.”

Lawson Naidoo, the executive secretary for the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution, said the statement was “quite shocking”.

He pointed out that South Africa was a signatory to the UN Convention against Corruption, the African Union (AU) Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption, as well as the Protocol Against Corruption of the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

“So are you saying that the AU and SADC are now following something that is Western?”

On Friday, the ANC said it was “unfazed” and there was nothing new about the story. The party’s spokesperson, Zizi Kodwa, said: “People peddle lies in the public to drive vindictive agendas against President Jacob Zuma. Nothing of credible note has been presented so far.”

Zuma’s spokesperson, Mac Maharaj, did not respond to questions on the president’s views on corruption by the time of going to press.

6b3ac6993eaa4460ac237194b3cadc28.jpg


Zuma's lawyer, Michael Hulley
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http://www.citypress.co.za/politics/corruption-western-thing/

And even if it was a crime, Zuma’s lawyers apparently argued, it was a crime where there are “no victims”.
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This guy is UFB.
 
PRESIDENCY MUM ON CORRUPTION REPORTS

There has been a veil of silence from the presidency following a number of reports on dropped charges against President Jacob Zuma for alleged corruption in 2009.

Presidency spokesman Mac Maharaj has yet to respond to e-mailed questions sent to him on Friday and on Monday morning.

Beeld newspaper on Monday reported that Zuma used legal principles from former United States president Richard Nixon's case to argue why corruption charges against him should be dropped.

This was according to an internal National Prosecuting Authority memorandum, written by former senior prosecutor Billy Downer, which the newspaper said it had in its possession.

Zuma was African National Congress president at the time and the national elections were being held in less than two months, where he would be elected president of the country.

Reference to Zuma's representations, made by his attorney Michael Hulley, in the document made it clear that one of his arguments against prosecution was that he would soon be president and should he be prosecuted there might be a "constitutional crisis".

The NPA document reportedly referred to page 78 of Zuma's argument which referred to a case in the US's court of appeal where Nixon argued that a president enjoyed exemption from legal processes and as a result he did not have to hand over recordings to investigators that implicated him.

In response to the argument, Downer reportedly shot back saying the allegations against Zuma were of the "most shocking corruption" which carried heavy penalties.

He argued that Nixon had not been granted the exemption, was threatened with impeachment and so he resigned.

In his memorandum to former NPA head Mokotedi Mpshe, Downer reportedly said that Zuma was not a serving president at the time and if he was elected it would have been done with the full knowledge of himself, the ANC and voters that serious criminal charges against him were pending.

On Friday, the Afrikaans daily reported that the graft case against Zuma carried "utmost gravity", and that he was part of a broad corruption scheme intended to benefit the ANC in perpetuity.

The case against Zuma was strong and would also show that the ruling party was meant to be an "eternal beneficiary" in an "extended scheme of corruption", Downer, who wanted to prosecute Zuma, wrote in a memorandum in 2009.

The memo was addressed to Mpshe, according to the newspaper report.

A month later, Mpshe dropped the corruption charges against Zuma.

Mpshe on Friday declined to comment on the report.

Mpshe announced on April 6, 2009, that the charges against Zuma would be dropped because there was a political conspiracy against him.

Source : Sapa /gq/tk/ks/lp
Date : 13 Oct 2014 18:05
 
Ok then.

If you want to play it that way, Mr President, then you can just as well terminate the institution you call SARS and stop collecting taxes, as taxes is also a Western idea.

Go on, Mr President, I dare you to kill off SARS.
 
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