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Justice Chinhengo call welcome

Opinion & Analysis
High-level corruption has paralysed Zimbabwe’s economy as the culprits have gone unpunished, putting into question President Robert Mugabe’s will to fighting it.

High-level corruption has paralysed Zimbabwe’s economy as the culprits have gone unpunished, putting into question President Robert Mugabe’s will to fighting it.

NewsDay Editorial

The call by retired High Court judge Justice Moses Chinhengo for Parliament to enact a code of conduct for the Vice-President, Cabinet ministers and their deputies to ensure accountability and curb endemic graft and abuse of office by public office bearers, is very much welcome.

There is no better time than now to stop the rot in the country as events of the last few weeks point to an unfortunate system, requiring urgent redress.

Zimbabweans have watched with dismay as Hurungwe West Zanu PF MP Temba Mliswa claimed proceeds of corruption running into millions of dollars. Mliswa also implicated senior ruling party politicians, and threatened to expose many others for their role in corruption in the country.

This shows that Zimbabwe urgently requires a code of conduct for the Executive if Parliament is to play its oversight role.

The recent Salarygate exposés also provide a compelling need for a code of conduct for ministers who could be complicit in the scandals.

Widespread scandals in the parastatals where permanent secretaries and chief executive officers of State-controlled enterprises awarded themselves high and unsustainable salaries right in front of ministers or possibly with their complicit stresses the need to enact the code of conduct.

The state of corruption in the country is lamentable as the ruling Zanu PF party has evolved into a criminal band that stops at nothing in its looting spree. No doubt Mugabe has lost the will to instill discipline and fight graft at Cabinet level and among his lieutenants in government and in State-linked enterprises.

And, the frustration among many Zimbabweans is that there are very few people, if at all, who have been held to account successfully through the legal system.

It appears Mugabe is leading “a looting mafia” presiding over Zimbabwe’s demise and churning out one corruption scandal after another.

Almost every scandal seems to involve a Zanu PF bigwig, who protects his fronts from prosecution; no politician associated with any of the huge graft scandals has ever been prosecuted. Only the small fish have been prosecuted leaving the big fish to walk away scot-free.

Despite Mugabe’s pronouncements, his ministers have ignored him while the police refuse to prosecute connected individuals. Mugabe has been rendered useless as it turns out that he now leads, rewards and consorts with the thieves in government.

Again, lack of impartiality among top civil servants particularly security chiefs also compromises accountability annulling Mugabe’s supposed fight against graft.

In that regard, Parliament should enact laws to ensure that the public is provided with services in a transparent and accountable manner and that appointment of people in the public service is done on merit.