Prominent businessman Shingi Munyeza says Zimbabwe has the ability to fix the endemic corruption that has brought the economy to its knees.
BY KUDZAI MUCHENJEKWA
Speaking at the AMH conversations series titled Tackling the scourge of corruption in Harare yesterday, Munyeza said Zimbabwe has the capacity to reduce the levels of corruption, as the country was once ranked 43 on the corruption index, meaning that the scourge is something that could be dealt with.
“First and foremost, I think what we need to outline and understand is that we don’t have a corruption gene. The reason I say that is in 1998, we were ranked number 43 in the corruption index and, as of last year 2017, we are now sitting at 157 out of 167. This shows that we can fix the corruption. This thing can be dealt with,” he said.
Several former ministers, including Samuel Undenge (Energy and Power Development), Ignatius Chombo (Finance), Walter Mzembi (Foreign Affairs), Supa Mandiwanzira (ICT) and David Parirenyatwa (Health) have pending cases of corruption in courts.
Norton legislator Themba Mliswa (independent), who was also a panellist, said the government should see to it that ministers are held accountable for corruption that takes place during their term of office, not to wait until they are no longer ministers.
“As a country, we really need to name and shame and we need to expose those leaders in office during their tenure. Why should we have situations where ministers are arrested when they finish their term of office? It doesn’t make sense,” he said.
“They must be arrested while they are still in office because evidence will still be raw. When they leave office, they destroy the evidence.”
