In any situation – be it social, environmental, economic or political – it is people who have power. We have many structures in place to make us feel otherwise; but the reality is that it’s the people who make up every single institution, social construct and system.

So it is our duty to exercise that responsibility in every walk of life, in every moment that we encounter it. Just as much as it is our apathy and irresponsibility that got us into this mess, it is our strength that will get us out of it.

In every institution – from family, to business and to government – we cannot thrive without accountability, transparency and discipline. It is not that these basic concepts are important going forward; they have always been the key requirements for a just, fair and equal society.

And again, it is because people have benefited for so long from corrupting these principles that we have a system that is rotten to the core.

If people are still going to pay a policeman for the convenience of not being fined and if parents will still pay a so-called ‘donation’ to admit their children to school, then that right is corruption.

We need to understand that paying garbage collectors those extra few bucks to take our trash away is corruption. And if we’re corrupt because it is easier for us, because we can’t be bothered to follow due process in our day-to-day lives, then we don’t have the right to demand it from our politicians.

This is the time to take a very hard look at ourselves; the time to reflect and understand all the tiny steps that have brought us here.

Just like Desmond Tutu’s reconciliation programmes in South Africa, the only way to heal and move forward is to understand how we got here… and forgive. We didn’t get here because it was arbitrarily imposed on us by a third party.