PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe has called for an education system that instills good moral values and discipline among young people in order to combat corruption and uphold African cultural values.
VENERANDA LANGA
Speaking in a pre-recorded interview broadcast on ZTV on Friday ahead of his 90th birthday celebrations yesterday, Mugabe said the high-level corruption witnessed at the country’s parastatals and other institutions was due to moral decadence where people were employed on the basis of their qualifications without considering their moral standards.
“The manner in which corruption had been happening in this country was as if it had become a policy, but the better part to combat corruption is to organise our educational institutions so that children grow up being taught about discipline and moral values at our educational institutions,” Mugabe said.
“Of course, temptations along the way may break this commitment to discipline and this is why our systems should be guarding and protecting our resources so that they are not abused.”
Many high-ranking public and private sector officials have been implicated in cases of corruption, while some are under investigations for misuse of public resources. Mugabe also took a dig at a United States-based church which was reportedly allowing its congregants to attend services while nude saying that was proof corruption had infiltrated churches.
“There is corruption everywhere — even in churches, and I was just reading a paper which said in the US, people are now attending church services while being nude — and what does that mean?” Mugabe queried. “If you do not put on a trouser or anything — how do you pray to God? You just take pictures while nude like that and you are not even hiding anything — and you are supposed to be praying to God?”
Mugabe’s assertions follow last week’s media reports of a south-eastern Virginia pastor Allen Parker who is leader of the White Tail Chapel who allegedly encouraged his congregants to attend church services in the nude.
