How to respond to corruption allegations

Many South African politicians and public officials can take a lesson from Peter Hain’s resignation. According to Sky News:

Cabinet Minister Peter Hain has resigned after the Electoral Commission announced it had referred the issue of undeclared donations to his deputy leadership campaign to the police.

Mr Hain said: “In view of the Electoral Commission decision today, I will be resigning to clear my name.”

The Prime Minister has accepted his resignation. […]

Sky News political editor Adam Boulton said: “Peter Hain has had to come back repeatedly and correct what he has been saying.

“At best he has not been on top of what is going on in terms of fund-raising, at worst, he has been less than frank about what is going on. That is what appears to have convinced Gordon Brown, or indeed, Peter Hain himself, that his position is untenable.

“This is a serious blow to the government.”

He claims innocence, citing mere administrative oversights. He was a respected member of the Cabinet, in charge of a large, important ministry, and politics was his life.

Yet he didn’t wait for the police investigation to start. He didn’t wait for formal charges to be filed. He didn’t wait to be found guilty in a court of law. He didn’t wait to be fired by the prime minister. He offered to resign, on the spot. No ifs, buts or maybes. And they still call it “incompetence, economic turmoil and political sleaze”.

Here, sleaze is the order of the day, and an honourable resignation seems to be the last thing on the minds of our gravy-train passengers.

Granted, were its members to follow the example of the corrupt British capitalist imperialist pigs, the ANC national executive committee would be sorely understaffed. The South African Cabinet would be gravely depleted. On the other hand, imagine the many new job openings the government could claim credit for creating!

(First published on my own blog.)