Imagine a high school —let us call it Chaos High School — where hedonistic tendencies take precedence over everything else. At Chaos High School, teachers and students attend classes when they feel like. Teachers, both male and female, engage in sexual activities with students willy-nilly. Female students are raped left right and centre. Déjà vu by Kamurai Mudzingwa
Cases of drug abuse and abortions are galore. School funds are abused left, right and centre and core educational and extra-curricular activities were stopped long back because funds meant for the activities are abused by a few powerful individuals such as the sports master, senior mistress, deputy head and heads of departments who form the core of the school’s governance system.
When complaints from society about the corrupt tendencies at the school get louder, a few prefects are sacrificed through suspensions or very rarely, expulsions. At times, to “pacify” society, particularly parents who make the loudest noise because it is their money being abused, teachers are relocated to other portfolios as a way of “dealing” with corrupt practices at the school.
For example, the senior mistress is transferred to the portfolio of sports mistress, the senior master becomes the second deputy head of the school and so on. It is not surprising that these characters are later recycled to the same portfolios. Sometimes the portfolios are renamed to fool people.
For instance, the sports master’s title is changed to sports director and the heads of departments become known as subject heads. It is obvious that at Chaos High School, only those who fawn at the headmaster survive. Failure to toe the line has consequences that include prosecution for the common crimes perpetrated by everyone at the school.
Who is to blame for the rot at Chaos High School? Of course it is the head; the buck stops with him. It would be naïve to assume that the head would not be aware of the goings on at the school. And worse still, to assume that the leader is so morally upright that one day he will deal with the rot at the school. Either the head would be turning a blind eye to the rot or he may have no means of dealing with it. The small fry (the prefects in this case) are sacrificed.
This scenario parallels the general situation in Zimbabwe concerning corruption in Zimbabwe. There is a serious attempt to sell the majority the dummy that President Robert Mugabe would be unaware of the levels of corruption in his government. This is some sick joke really.
If President Mugabe was so daft he would not have stayed in power for more than 30 years. Like the head of Chaos High School, the buck stops with him. My colleague Charles Laiton wrote an article published in this paper on February 7 2014 in which he chronicled, in detail, well documented instances of corruption that we can safely say the president was and is aware of. This is the list that Laiton adapted from a paper presented by Dr G Shana at the Mass Public Opinion Institute Seminar, Crowne Plaza Hotel, Harare May 9, 2006:
- Chamisa under fire over US$120K donation
- Mavhunga puts DeMbare into Chibuku quarterfinals
- Pension funds bet on Cabora Bassa oilfields
- Councils defy govt fire tender directive
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1987 — Ziscosteel Blast Furnace Scandal 1987 — Air Zimbabwe Fokker Plane Scandal — $100 million 1986 — National Railways Housing Scandal 1988 — Willowgate Scandal 1989 — ZRP Santana Scandal 1994 — War Victims Compensation Scandal 1995 — GMB Grain Scandal 1996 — VIP Housing Scandal 1998 — Boka Banking Scandal 1998 — Zesa YTL Soltran Scandal 1998 — Telecel Scandal 1998 — Harare City Council Refuse Tender Scandal 1999 — Housing Loan Scandal 1999 — Noczim Scandal 1999 — DRC timber and diamond UN-reported scandals 1999 — GMB Scandal 1999 — Ministry of Water and Rural Development Chinese Tender Scandal 1999 — VIP Land Grab Scandal 2001 — Harare Airport Scandal
A close analysis of the list shows that corruption cuts across all sections of society and the scandals are high profile which points to the involvement of ministers and other top government officials. The death of the economy is there for everyone to see and one of the major causes is corruption. Surely we cannot assume that the head of government is unaware.
What is also evident is that certain individuals have been fingered or openly named in corruption scams, but the more they are fingered, the more they bounce back or are recycled as government ministers. Corruption was not stopped at inception and the trend is getting worse and more open by the day.
What is evident from the data above is that the scams intensified as the years progress showing that the corrupt government officials got more and more confident knowing that nothing would happen to them. Today, the government seems to have embraced corruption as a way of doing business.
The President himself has publicly castigated corruption to the extent of citing corruption perpetrated at low levels such as roadblocks. This shows that he is aware of what is happening in the country and we cannot be duped into thinking otherwise.
And the point remains; the buck stops with him. As long as he remains the leader of this country, corruption taking place in the country will continue to soil his name the way it soils the head of Chaos High School. There are no two ways about it. The people will continue hating his government with the same intensity that his top officials engage in acts of corruption.
