“If we do not combat corruption our people and our countries are doomed to misfortune” – Flavio Menete

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“If we do not combat corruption our people and our countries are doomed to misfortune” – Flavio Menete

8:37 CAT | 16 Sep 2016

O País (Fie photo) / Flavio Menete

The Mozambican Bar Association (OAM) warned on Thursday that, unless firm measures are taken against corruption, African countries will never prosper.

Speaking at a regional seminar in Maputo on Training in Anti-Corruption and Standards of Conformity in Commercial Transactions, organized by the OAM and the Pan-African Lawyers’ Union (PALU), the OAM chairperson, Flavio Menete, urged African legal professionals to concentrate their efforts on the fight against corruption in order to reverse the current scenario in which several African countries are on the list of the most corrupt countries in the world.

African countries are doing little to fight corruption, Menete accused. “If we do not combat this evil, which everybody talks about, but does little to end, our people and our countries are doomed to misfortune”.

Menete noted that studies have shown how Africa loses billions of dollars a year due to corrupt practices.

“We are aware that corruption is practiced by people whom we know”, he said. “They are our neighbours, they are members of our families. Sometimes we say this person is doing well. He’s doing well, but we know he is progressing by using things that don’t belong to him, by involving himself in illicit activities. As long as there is no fight against corruption, the future of the continent is mortgaged”.

The President of the Tanzanian Law Society (TLS), John Seka, representing the SADC (Southern African Development Community) Lawyers Association, stressed the responsibility borne by lawyers in the fight against corruption, in defence of the welfare both of the public and of the private business sector.

“This problem exists and it will continue to live with us until we take a firm stand against it”, said Seka. “Our responsibility is to stand against corruption and not to be actively involved in corruption. All lawyers in Africa must be part of this change”.

Source: AIM