Can We Trust Our Leaders?

by Dr Raymond Perrier · July 12, 2022

Amid the news coverage of the recent floods in KwaZulu-Natal was a video that seemed to show relief provisions being stolen by municipal officials. On closer inspection it turned out that the deliveries in the video may well have been innocent — but what it revealed was the complete breakdown in trust in government (at least in this part of the country).

Not surprisingly, almost everyone who was raising money for flood relief directed well-wishers not to support government efforts but rather non-governmental organisations (NGOs). On US television, South Africa’s finest comedian, Trevor Noah, encouraged people to donate to the excellent Muslim organisation Gift of the Givers (and we at the Denis Hurley Centre did the same).

Equally, those who needed help seemed to be much more confident that they would receive it from churches, NGOs and local community organisations, rather than from the well-funded government departments which were supposed to deliver. So even when the municipality has started fixing roads and water pipes and other damage — and they have — they rarely get credit for it.

Something similar happened during the riots last year in Durban. Again a video went viral, seeming to show police officers taking for themselves items that were being confiscated. It turned out that their actions were entirely legitimate and had been misconstrued. I don’t doubt that there were police who took advantage of the chaos of the riots (as many other people did), but the assumption of those who first saw the video was that all police were corrupt.

You can see why people might think this: we were only just reeling from stories of ways in which officials and politicians (including former health minister Zweli Mkhize, who had been a good friend of the Denis Hurley Centre) had used the pandemic as a cover to benefit themselves, their friends and their families. And that is to say nothing of the stories of Eskom, Guptagate, the arms deal, Steinhoff, and so on.

Given KZN’s run of disasters — plague, riots, floods — I wouldn’t be surprised if we soon faced frogs or locusts or whichever biblical disaster is next on the list. And, no doubt, there will be people finding a way to make a dishonest buck out of the situation.

How did it get this way?

How have we reached a state in which we have lost so much trust in government? I confess that I have come to share in this general scepticism. But I am anxious at how easily we move from “some officials are corrupt some of the time” to “most officials are corrupt most of the time” to “all officials are corrupt all of the time”.

There will be Catholic politicians, public servants and police officers reading this article who may be feeling defensive, and I don’t blame you. But I ask you to look deep inside and ask yourself: Is my own behaviour always above board? And do I turn a blind eye to the instances of bad conduct around me? The problem is that it takes a lot of examples of good behaviour to build trust; but only one or two cases of bad behaviour to destroy it.

If we want to know how this happens, we need look no further than our own Church. Abuse by a limited number of priests and religious has tended to undermine trust in all priests and religious. Cover-ups by a few bishops has made some people suspicious of all bishops. Persistent failures to be accountable have made a bad situation even worse.

We might counter, defensively, and say: “But that is the Church in a different diocese or in a different country.” However, the claim to be universal (“catholic”) means that each part of the Church will be associated with the good and the bad behaviour of the rest of the Church. Similarly, when one part of a political party tries to distance itself from the bad conduct of one branch or one province or one politician, the defence rarely sounds credible.

In any religious or political organisation — especially ones that claim to be working for the common good — there will be cases of bad conduct that undermine faith in the institution. Because they are often close-knit groups, the temptation is to protect the institution by covering up or minimising or obfuscating those cases that come to light.

The right way to act

The proper way to protect the institution — and also to make good for the people who have been harmed — is open accountability, an honest admission of failure, and genuine attempts to learn for the future. After initially being in denial and responding too slowly, various parts of the Church have made great strides in this area in recent years — at least as far as abuse is concerned, though the Church still has a long way to go on financial accountability.

The ANC now has the opportunity with the Zondo Commission to show that it really is penitent and has “a firm desire of amendment”. We wait and see…

Psalm 146:3 warns us: “Do not put your trust in princes, nor in human beings who cannot save.” That would apply to political princes and also to those who used to call themselves princes of the Church. But where does that leave you and me? We can say that we will put our trust in God; but God acts through the “princes” and other human beings who are placed in our lives to help us. I think that the psalmist is reminding us that we cannot put blind trust in our fellow human beings. If we are to live in society, we need to trust people, up to a point. But we also need to keep our eyes open and hold people accountable.

Perhaps for too long we have — through loyalty or laziness — believed the promises of religious (or political) leaders, hoping that they will take care of us. After all, it is much easier to be a child than an adult. But, as St Paul reminds us: “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became an adult, I gave up childish ways” (1 Corinthians 13:11).

Are we each prepared to take responsibility for our own role in society?