The Zanu PF patronage formula is clear. The government procures loans for State enterprises from China. These loans, by the way, will eventually be paid by the taxpayer.
Corruption, conflicts of interest and patronage is the culture of Zanu PF and this is not going to go away until we have a new government and new political leadership. At some stage we will have to quantify the amount of looting that has been going on and we are all going to be shocked. Zimbabwe will never progress as long as Zanu PF is in power.
Vince Musewe,PDP secretary for finance and economic affairs
We anxiously await for the forensic audit at NetOne, but that is not all. In our view, all State enterprises should be audited in a similar manner in order to expose the theft of public resources that is now the new normal.
The Zanu PF patronage formula is clear. The government procures loans for State enterprises from China. These loans, by the way, will eventually be paid by the taxpayer. The funds are then spent on projects which are authorised by the line minister and procurement is then authorised by the CEOs and boards. Projects are given to “approved suppliers” who are, of course, part of the looting machine.
Line ministers, State enterprise CEOs, State enterprise boards and approved suppliers are all cogs of this looting machine which is plundering the country’s resources and everyone gets paid.
This also happens within local government contracts and every State institution. This is what we term “the looting machine” which is oiled by patronage and homage to the President who, of course, has the final say on who gets appointed as what and where.
It is highly lucrative to be approved by him and one must remain loyal to the party and the President or else. In Zimbabwe, we, therefore, have a typical example of “State capture” by Zanu PF and a sitting President.
Because of this looting machine, Zimbabweans continue to lose billions of dollars that could be used to develop the country and benefit its people, especially within State enterprises.
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In addition, the pricing of goods and services provided by State enterprises is uncompetitive and inflated in order to meet the cost of corruption and patronage. This, of course, includes high employment costs and benefits paid to State enterprise senior managers and executives.
As People’s Democratic Party (PDP), our approach will be to dismantle this looting machine first through forensic audits to expose the extent of the graft and then transforming State enterprises into viable business entities by appointing new non-partisan professional managers and executives to run them, including ensuring that we have independent and ethical boards. Those who have stolen from the people must face the consequences.
In addition, we will ensure that no government official does business with government. We have to remove conflicts of interest and ensure accountability and transparency to save Zimbabwe from this cancer of patronage and theft.
