On 19 February we published our annual report, and at the same time released details of our new youth campaign, with the theme of My hands Are Clean. One of the campaign’s elements involved participants taking a selfie or group shot of their raised hands, making a public statement against corruption, sending the picture to the Twitter hashtag #MyHandsAreClean, and nominating friends, colleagues and celebrities to do the same.
We’ve had a tremendous response to this initiative, which aims to raise awareness of and boost resistance to corruption – so our heroes this week are all the people, around the world, who are so enthusiastically taking part.
The campaign’s social media wall updates in real time the responses from Twitter, Google+ and Facebook – so far we’ve received much-appreciated support from, among others, Transparency International chapters in Pakistan, Cambodia, France, Germany and more, Yusuf Abramjee and Crime Line here at home, NGOs. Cosatu, dozens of ordinary people, as well as the departments of home affairs and arts and culture!
Of course, there will always be those who ask what good such a campaign is, and what effect it could possibly have on corruption. To them we say that it’s just one component of a sustained, united movement against corruption, which is realistically the only way the problem will diminish. By participating, people have pledged to stand against corruption and as their numbers grow, the opportunities for the corrupt to operate will shrink.
It also sends out a message to those who are corrupt, that people are growing weary of such behaviour.
