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Mugabe not being sincere on corruption

ONE of the reasons President Robert Mugabe has provided for his inertia on corruption is the lack of evidence that his top officials have been involved in graft.

ONE of the reasons President Robert Mugabe has provided for his inertia on corruption is the lack of evidence that his top officials have been involved in graft.

Comment: NewsDay Editor

This is a cumbersome argument at best and is unsustainable, but let us indulge the President a little.

As has become a tradition, Auditor-General Mildred Chiri, without fail, always churns out audit reports of parastatals and government bodies, which are a treasure trove for anyone investigating corruption.

There are reports that, for example, the Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe paid more than $25 000 in board fees over two years, except that there was no board to speak of.

It is a public secret that former Mines permanent secretary, Francis Gudyanga has been running a one-man show for a while and there is no justification why there were payments to a non-existent board.

Gudyanga has recently been moved to the Higher Education ministry, yet if Mugabe is serious about curbing corruption, then there is one person that needs to be investigated and should not be in charge of a government ministry.

That the National Social Security Authority (NSSA) cannot find land that it owns in Chegutu is an absurdity at most, raising questions of what else the authority is failing to account for.

What is sad is no one is being held to account for such lapses and we are yet to hear of high-profile job losses and arrests arising from such serious neglect of duty.

The rot continues at ZimParks, where 11 vehicles were not registered in the authority’s name, which is in itself a fraudulent activity.

The country’s parastatals are a breeding ground for corruption and there is need for Mugabe to take the lead and act on this corruption.

Mugabe cannot continue claiming he does not have evidence of senior officials being involved in corruption, when Chiri provides it clearly in black and white.

What the President should do is act on these reports and ensure that anyone who is implicated in graft is brought to book.

If not, we are inclined to believe what former Vice-President Joice Mujuru once said, claiming Mugabe has a file on each of his ministers, which he pulls out when they do not toe the line.

This is obviously for patronage reasons, so the ministers implicated in corruption can forever be loyal. However, this breeds further graft which then snowballs into the monster it has become.

Mugabe needs to act on Chiri’s reports if the country is ever to get rid, or at least reduce, the high incidence of corruption in public offices.