Editorial Comment
THE ongoing Grain Marketing Board US$9 million saga, which has sucked in President Emmerson Mnangagwa and former Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa, may be just a tip of the iceberg considering how corruption has become so widespread and indicates that chances of success in our fight against the problem may be next to nil.
Then the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) identifies US$7 billion worth of properties belonging to former and current leaders in government and captains of industry stashed away in Switzerland, US, London, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Mauritius and Spain.
The disturbing revelations on GMB, which emerged when Grain Millers Association of Zimbabwe (GMAZ) boss Tafadzwa Musarara appeared before the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Agriculture show that perhaps all the talk about fighting corruption by top government officials is a mere public stunt with no matching action on the ground. This is so because many of the politicians are the beneficiaries of graft in one way or the other.
This is quite a depressing development as it demonstrates beyond doubt that there is no sincerity in what our leadership is doing, as many of them are in it just for the benefit. Their involvement in politics has got nothing to do with having the interests of the country at heart but they are just there for the filthy lucre that has cost the country dearly.
It is also sad that the money was meant to rehabilitate GMB silos to be able to store grain, but someone saw an opportunity to help themselves to the money at the expense of an entire nation, which would benefit from the restoration of those silos. This kind of culture has been allowed to go on for too long. And now it is quite clear that the problem has been treated with kid gloves because those who are supposed to spearhead the fight against corruption are actually beneficiaries of the vice.
The very same people that should be spearheading the fight against corruption are the ones fuelling it. So in simple terms, there is no fight against corruption. There is just one big deception that they are fighting corruption when they are actually fuelling and propagating it. It is a tragedy on a grand scale.
