Where is our outrage?

TREASURY, this week, announced from Davos, Switzerland, it had secured multi-billion funding for a new multi-purpose national stadium to be built in the new city of Mt Hampden.  

Pretty good news, but the tender was awarded in an opaque manner and there was nominal online opposition to the deal. 

Davos, every year in January, is a meeting place of government and private business where deals are hammered on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum.  

Zimbabwe attends this conference, but so far, very little has been directly achieved from the country’s participation. 

The Treasury announcement that it had secured funding for a new stadium was, therefore, good news.  

For the first time in a while, something tangible had come out of Davos.  

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However, the making of the deal and the choice of the funding partner stinks to high heavens. 

A Swiss conglomerate, Matabex, is the new funding partner.  

Actually, Matabex is not new to Zimbabwe and the new city infrastructure development deals. 

In 2024, ahead of the Sadc conference held at New Parliament Building, Treasury told the nation that it had secured funds and paid a Swiss company, Matabex, to construct 18 prefabricated luxury presidential villas for use by attending head of States and governments. 

Two years down the lane and long after the conference, not a single villa has been completed.  

No coherent explanation has been given for the delay, particularly that the contractor had been paid in advance. 

It is interesting that these multi-million deals are offered to Swiss companies without going for an open tender.  

Every contract is considered as an emergency or as simply something that can be done only by the Swiss, hence no need for public tendering. 

The matter takes a new twist if one considers that the Treasury Czar, Mthuli Ncube’s last official job was in Switzerland.  

Actually, his family still stays in that tax haven with complicated financial privacy laws.  

Would it not be prudent and logical that such large tenders are awarded after competitive bidding?  

Will the transparent procurement not increase public confidence in the use public finance? 

Let’s try get some facts in about public finance in Zimbabwe.  

Annually, the chief government auditor, the Auditor-General, has produced reports that show ministries, departments and agencies are losing millions each year through undelivered goods and services, yet in most cases the money would have been paid in advance. 

In the past decade, where supposed zero-tolerance to corruption administration has been in power, not a single permanent secretary or chief executive of a parastatal has been arrested and convicted of abuse of public funds. 

This in action seems to confirm the sad reality that the AG reports and parliamentary scrutiny only serve one purpose — catharsis. 

It is ironic that two public institutions — Parliament and trade unions — that are expected to be the voice and conscience of the people have acquiesced to the Executive and see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil about the abuse of public funds during the so-called second republic. 

The justice cluster — the police, National Prosecuting Authority of Zimbabwe and the courts — has also been not robust enough in dealing with issues of abuse of public funds.  

They seem to wait for a signal from the Executive on which matters to investigate, prosecute and convict.  

It would be interesting to note how the Executive will respond to the recent High Court judgment that ordered the President to release to the public the Justice Uchena report on the commission of inquiry into urban land sales and settlements.  

Will the public be angry enough from the revelations that they would demand justice?  

Or it will be another business-as-usual incident. 

Zimbabwe is a curious country.  

You can understand public outrage from social media and rarely is the outrage replicate offline — in the trenches and the picket lines. 

Speaking of picketing, the last time I checked, I remember it is a right protected by the Constitution.  

However, the last serious pickets or public demonstrations were at the tail-end of the last century.  

When urban residents would demonstrate because they did not have tap water for a week or workers filling the streets because government has introduced a new levy that affected the disposable income of workers. 

Interestingly, no senior public officials — MPs, senior executives at parastatals or academia frequently come to the picket lines. 

They all seem disinterested in public issues or colluding with the regime. 

This week, the International Monetary Fund Staff-Monitored Programme — Article IV consultations started. 

It would be interesting to see how the multi-lateral financial institution will score Zimbabwe on issues such as economic reforms, legal reforms, national debt and combating corruption and efficient use of public finances. 

Zimbabwe needs an impressive scorecard for it to access cheap loans and grants for public infrastructure, economic restructuring and resolution of the national debt overhang. 

If ministries pay for goods and services that are never delivered, when Treasury pay foreign contractors in hard currency and they never deliver, what can cause a serious national outrage?  

Or Zimbabweans have lost their agency and resigned to their fate?  

Or worse still, can only show outrage online behind keyboards and ghost accounts? 

It is imperative that Zimbabweans find their voices and courage again.  

That they demand accountability from their leaders. 

And above all, using constitutionally guaranteed rights like picketing and public interest litigation to bring transparency and accountability in public finance management.  

Where is our outrage and how do we express it?