Fighting Corruption: Bringing Value Driven Communities Back into Direct Action

The Integritas Media Statement and Emerging Prospectus (The Integritas Integrity Initiative -Work in Progress: Erwin Schwella)

1. Context and challenges

Corruption Kills! Like COVID-19, corruption is a global pandemic. And, as is the case with COVID-19, South Africa is one of the hardest hit countries by the pandemic of corruption. For South Africa, there is consistent and growing evidence that corruption kills. Poor and powerless people die everyday as a consequence of corruption.

Corruption contributes to poverty, inequality and unemployment. Poor and powerless people doing the right thing by exposing and combating corruption, are murdered by the corrupt as part of covering up their corruption.

Where there is uncontrolled corruption, like in South Africa, roads fall into disrepair, currencies depreciate, real prices inflate, health services weaken, life expectancy slump, people go hungry, education standards fall, civil society becomes beleaguered, personal and national prosperity slows, crime rates accelerate, and safety and security become tenuous. Corruption grows corruption.

Funds flow out of the country into hidden bank accounts. Discrimination becomes prevalent. Where corruption rules unabated integrity is on the retreat. The corrupt conquers. The rat race is over and the rats win! Civil wars begin. Life becomes solitary, nasty, poor, brutish and short.

Integrity inspires and innovates!

Where there is integrity, in contrast to corruption, government and societal institutions perform effectively benefiting citizens. Quality of life increases, crime decreases. Ethical and effective governance founded upon the rule of law delivers safety and security, good education, good healthcare and economic growth towards a better life for all. Integrity inspires and innovates towards effective and ethical arteries of governance, public service, commerce and industry. Human freedom improve.

Integrity innovates and inspires civil society to protect the environment. Integrity based innovation inspires citizens with a sense of trust towards cooperation, consensus and cohesion. When good people do nothing, evil thrives.

We need to get the boot of corruption of our throats and the throats of the poor and powerless who cannot breathe. We need to do so with integrity, compassion, inspiration, innovation and impact.

This commitment to action for change leads into the Integritas Big Idea.

2. The Integritas Big Idea (Vision)

The Intergritas Big Idea is to purposefully and actively co-create knowledge and community-based integrity community partnerships to counter and combat corruption with inspiring and innovative integrity.

Integritas aspires to institutionalise and implement the Integritas Big Idea through direct value community-based action. The Integritas initiative intends to support this direct community action through next level action by creating and sustaining an impactful social innovation knowledge network. This coordinative knowledge network is implemented as a cooperative and co-creative rather than a controlling and competitive entity.

3. Institutionalising the Integritas Big Idea

The Integritas Big Idea is institutionalised through an initial leading coalition consisting of:

· The School of Social Innovation and Centre for Good Governance at Hugenote (https://hugenote.com/academics/schools/ );

· CiviNovus (www.civinovus.co.za ), PhD Athenaeum and CNRRadio http://civinovus.co.za/cnr ;

· The Andrew Murray Center, (https://www.andrewmurraysentrum.co.za/home/ ) and

· Other associated institutions and individual contributors.

The purpose of this leading and growing action network and associated institutions, is to actively counter and combat corruption with integrity.

Institutional and individual competency and capacity is created through knowledge-based strategies and action within local communities and a globally for impact.

4. Implementing the Integritas Big Idea: Concrete Next Steps Action

There is a deliberate bias for action in implementing the Integritas Big Idea. This implementation will be built through a series of continuing and complementary phases and layers.

4.1. Next Steps Phase 1: Legitimising, legalising and action towards the Integritas integrity initiative

4.2. Timeline August to December 2020

4.3. Objective Phase 1: Further legitimising and first level legalisation of the Integritas Network locally, nationally and globally linked to concrete action steps:

Concretely institutionalizing and implementation Phase 1 through:

· Layer 1: Increase individual support and membership of the local, national and global networks;

· Layer 2: Confirm first level proof of concept by securing funding for the next layers;

· Layer 3: Initiate the design and delivery of three to four prototype community based active Integritas social laboratories in selected communities

· Layer 4: Commencing the co-creation of the supporting next level social innovation network

· Layer 5: Concrete implementation through initially delivering:

o A budget and the funding of the budget to support the Integritas big idea and actions

o The first three to four Integritas organisations within selected communities

o A social innovation integrity and anti-corruption social innovation conference with all network partners at the Andrew Murray Center in Wellington early December 2020

Your country and community needs you!

A call to action: Join us as a volunteer and support us with your prayers, by volunteering and also pledging your time and possibly a financial contribution.

Interested? Contact: Erwin Schwella at deanssi@hugenote.com or Ulrike Hanekom at ulrike@civinovus.co.za or Bridget at bleibbrandt@sun.ac.za