FORMER State Enterprises (SEPs) and Parastatals minister Gorden Moyo yesterday blamed the corruption and chaos at most State companies on the First Family and Cabinet ministers.
BY VENERANDA LANGA
Moyo said this in Bulawayo during a book launch of four Transparency International Zimbabwe publications on the 2014 state of corruption in Zimbabwe.
“When I was minister of SEPs I discovered that they were part of the estates of the First Family and fellow Cabinet ministers, and if you are a minister of SEPs in Zimbabwe you have no job,” Moyo said. “You cannot have problems in SEPs without having problems in the State which is comprised of the population, institutions and government which is the most important component of the State, and if there is a problem in the State it means the problem is in government where presidents and ministers have become some of the very richest people in the world.”
Moyo said, while Mugabe had a super majority in Parliament, was leader of Sadc and African Union and was friendly to the Chinese who had a very good blueprint on SEPs, he had failed to use those advantages to combat corruption and resuscitate the comatose SEPs.
“Politicians are like napkins and they need to be changed often. We need new characters to reconstruct the State,” he said. “The real problem is in the militarisation and politicisation of our SEPs. It is politicisation in that politicians are using SEPs for their political activities, for example, First Lady Grace Mugabe’s adverts on Zupco.
“The purpose for militarisation in SEPs is not efficiency — it is about keeping them — a home where you will find ex-military, ex-ministers and police officers appointed there as their retirement home.”
Academic and a researcher on corruption in SEPs Ibbo Mandaza said there was now a bourgeoisie in Zimbabwe which joined the government to make money.
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“People came from the bush and they were former school teachers and did not have cars, but now we have a bunch of parasites who make money without working,” he said. “It is a theatre for looting and patronage.”
Mandaza, who was once a member of the Parastatals Commission during the 1980s, said their study revealed the Rhodesian government was corrupt, but the level of corruption now was worse and alarming.
“Virtually, all SEPs have collapsed. We thought ministers were empowered with Acts of Parliament, but blatant looting, for example at PSMAS where people earned half a million per month continued to happen and there has not been any effort by the government to recover the money or make arrests, ” he said.
Mandaza said solutions were reforms of the State, strong constitutional accountability by the Executive, a leadership with moral authority and who lead by example, and revival of the economy.
TIZ executive director Mary Jane Ncube said there was need for Zimbabweans to start monitoring implementation of economic blueprints like ZimAsset to ensure they will not be marred by corruption.
The four books launched by TIZ are Daily Lives and Corruption in Zimbabwe, State of Corruption in State-owned Enterprises, Young People and Corruption in Zimbabwe and Advocacy and Legal Advice Centre Compendium.
