Zimpapers Logo

would not be spared and I would want to presume that they have taken heed.
He was spot on because corruption is a pandemic that is proving costly to Zimbabwe’s economy.

Millions of dollars are being lost annually through corrupt practices while the economy is taking too long to stand firmly on its feet because of the vice in the public and private sectors alike.

So much has been said about the hazards of corruption but those in the midst of it all will hear none of it because they are benefiting from it.

They are living large because of corruption but life has a funny way of getting back even at that which is done in the dark. It was really sad to hear the President say some cunning officials were demanding bribes for investors to set up shop in this country resulting in the investors, particularly from South Africa, becoming reluctant to come to Zimbabwe because the “start-up costs” were eating significantly into their capital.

We have a scenario where on the other hand authorities are working at bringing investors here — with the President having set up a Ministry for Investment Promotion and yet on the other hand, there are those who are going out of their way, through selfishness, to stifle foreign investment. How then is a country expected to grow when others are busy destroying where some are building?

At some point last year and early this year we had begun to see planeloads of  investors from SA but the interest and frequency has somehow fizzled out. Despite the interest shown earlier, we have not seen much in terms of business deals from that country. This can be explained by the complaints registered by Mr Mbeki.

How many more have been suffering silently? How much has been collected in the name of President Mugabe and yet he is not even aware of it?

Of course, these things do happen even sometimes in the journalism field where sources are made to pay something for the Editor so that the story can be published and yet the said Editor may not be aware.

People need not pay for a story to appear on Page 1 or to be in the paper of a selected date. A lead story is the best story of the day and a source does not need to pay for a story to see the light of day. The media itself has a role to play in fighting corruption by raising issues, investigating cases and bringing them to the fore.

So, yes, Cde President! Your attack on such culprits was justified and quite in order. No one would want to superintend over a scenario where selfless efforts to grow the economy are being hamstrung by selfish individuals who seem to be so myopic that they cannot see that they are shooting themselves in the foot.

“Be disciplined. Do not try to deceive. There is a lot of indiscipline taking place.
“I was getting complaints even kunze from former South African president Thabo Mbeki who said some of our ANC people who come trying to do business have been told if you want to do business you should give us US$1 million. No, it is now US$5 million. We will take some of the money to President Mugabe zvekundinyepera.That is corruption. If I get information that minister so-and-so is doing that, you go immediately,” he said.

Certainly, such exhibition of unbridled greed cannot be allowed to go on and on while the country continues to bleed.

Let us support the President’s efforts to deal decisively with the scourge. He stressed he would need us to forward information on any corrupt cases. Certainly the Ides of March are coming as Julius Caesar would say.

The Zimbabwe Republic Police and the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority were also not spared by the President. They need to shape up or face the music.

In fact, corruption has spread across all sectors and levels of society but the situation is still redeemable if we all choose to do business the decent, straightforward and more rewarding manner.

So if people do not polish up their acts, we will soon see and hear names of those that will be nabbed. Kuchava nekugeda geda kwemeno. The Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission has already stated that several Cabinet ministers and Members of Parliament are under probe.

Reports that some MPs converted the bulk of Constituency Development Funds to personal use while some projects were personalised will certainly need more attention and decisive action.

There is need for the President to set an example of what befalls anyone caught engaging in corrupt activities — the kind that rocked the nation in the Willowgate scandal of 1989. That sure did cause an earthquake. We now await a tsunami on those that have all along been milking the country in one way or another.

The President’s speech gave the ZACC a bit more muscle to pursue cases more vigorously and we should begin to see them doing some work.

So much had been expected to come out of the revamped Commission but to date we have not seen much in terms of bringing to the fore real cases of corruption. Only a few low-profile cases have been handled by ZACC but these seem to have been abandoned midstream.

Corruption is also being practised in the private sector at alarming proportions.
The current espionage case in the tobacco industry should be quite revealing. Zimbabwe lost US$4,1 billion between 2000 and 2008 through illicit financial transactions.
Much more has obviously been lost between then and now, putting paid to efforts to rebuild the economy.

Business losses due to fraud globally have risen to US$1,7 million per billion dollars of sale with fraud costing the world US$41 trillion a year.

“Lack of business ethics and good corporate governance gives rise to corruption, corporate scandals and poverty.

“It affects the efficiency of productivity in the economy and the misallocation of resources. Corruption is basically an aberration, it is dishonesty and it harms the interests of shareholders, society and all stakeholders,” bemoaned the Deposit Protect Corporation chief executive Mr John Chikura at an Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators dinner recently.

Zimbabwe ranks 154 out of 182 countries on the corruption perception index.
A United Nations paper on Corruption and Anti-corruption in Southern Africa recently stated that: “Corruption is as much structurally conditioned as it is a personal-choice driven behaviour. Thus in corruption vulnerable areas (customs, police, procurement, licences and permits, education, employment, immigration and border controls, revenue collection and judiciary), anti-corruption strategies and policies ought to seek to reduce structural opportunities for corruption as well as motivational factors to corrupt and or to be corrupted”.

One way of discouraging corruption is to bring to book those caught in the act. We fully support you in this endeavour Cde President!

In God I trust!

Feedback: [email protected]