THE resolve by Norton MP Temba Mliswa to dare Energy minister Samuel Undenge over the $5 million controversially advanced to one Wicknell Chivayo, whose company, Intratek Zimbabwe, was awarded the multi-million-dollar Gwanda solar project under equally contentious circumstances, could not have come at an appropriate time.
In fact, Mliswa and his counterparts should be applauded for demanding transparency in the administration of public resources. There is no way taxpayers should continue to finance Cabinet ministers and other top government officials’ shindigs from the government purse.
It is not lost that Undenge is the same minister who forced power utility Zesa Holdings to contract his acolytes Oscar Pambuka and Highfield West MP Psychology Maziwisa to carry out a public relations task for an astronomical figure, yet the State enterprise has a fully-fledged communications office doing the same task, thus duplicating roles.
It appears corruption is inherent among some of the Cabinet ministers and top government officials, whose only objective is simply to create opportunities to milk the government of millions of dollars for self-aggrandisement at the expense of the general public.
We cannot but concur with Mliswa, who raised this matter during the 2018 national budget seminar in Victoria Falls that legislators must not be rampaged into passing a new budget when public funds are clearly being abused.
There is need for Undenge to explain his relationship to Chivayo, whose project was awarded in 2016 and yet no meaningful progress has been registered despite the businessman making off with $5 million in his personal account.
We believe it will be difficult for the MPs to consider a new budget when huge sums of public monies are still unaccounted for, hence, the need for the responsible ministers to be brought to account.
We are aware that nothing will be done to such wasteful and other corrupt government officials, for as long as they remain in the right basket.
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It is unfortunate that grovelling has become a prerequisite for one to become a government minister rather than competence, and this is why corruption levels have shot up.
Indeed, there is need to put a stop to all this madness. We have no doubt that endemic corruption continues to rise due to President Robert Mugabe’s reluctance to contain the vice.
It appears he uses graft as a way of controlling his juniors, so that they will not even challenge his one centre of power principle.
Yet, bad governance, corruption and foot-dragging has had serious ramifications on the welfare of the majority citizens. Mugabe should be warned that the citizenry will find a way to hit back. Had the economy been managed well, no one would ever want to focus on the politics of the country.
Given Undenge — like many of his colleagues — have failed to explain expenditures in their respective ministries, the citizenry will await the outcome of a committee proposed by Speaker of the National Assembly, Jacob Mudenda, to investigate the allegations. There is still a lot of explaining to do, otherwise Zimbabweans are demanding deliverables, and a zero tolerance policy on corruption.
