PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe has never been sincere on fighting corruption and should be the last person to talk about graft as he has allowed it to thrive, former war veterans leader Jabulani Sibanda has said.
Source: ‘President has never been sincere on fighting corruption’ – Southern Eye July 4, 2016
BY NQOBANI NDLOVU
Sibanda told Southern Eye in an interview last week that Mugabe had failed to act on several Cabinet ministers, whose corrupt activities had been exposed by whistleblowers, including former South African President Thabo Mbeki.
Mugabe said he once received a complaint from Mbeki that unnamed Zimbabwean ministers had demanded bribes of up to $10 million from South Africa’s African National Congress-linked companies keen on investing in the mining sector.
“During the Gweru conference (in 2012), Mugabe said any minister fingered in corruption, as reported by Mbeki, will not be a member of the next government,” Sibanda said.
“We were moving towards elections and as you know after elections, a new Cabinet is sworn in. He did not say, ‘I will constitute and institute a commission of inquiry to investigate the allegations coming from a person in the level of a president’. He did not say the police are going to investigate those ministers, since names had been given. He did not say those people are going to prison and their property is going to be confiscated.”
Sibanda also doubted Mugabe’s sincerity when he lamented the $15 billion losses in expected diamond revenues during his traditional 21st February Movement interview with the State media early this month.
Mugabe claimed Treasury received less than $2 billion in diamond revenue despite earning $15 billion because of the “failure by those he had assigned to supervise mining of the mineral”.
“Poor controls solicit crime. What about ignored controls? They encourage crime. They open doors for quality crime and these are the weakness that is in the leading personnel in our country. Because of that, corruption has assumed different levels and better qualities.
“Mugabe said we lost $15 billion, but I beg to differ. I think that is the least we could have expected. You then ask, was there no customs, was there no ministry . . ?” Sibanda added.
Former Finance minister Tendai Biti, during the era of the inclusive government, had raised the red flag on several occasions about diamond revenues that were not finding their way to State coffers, but was ignored.
COMMENTS
Mugabe = Corruption. Finish & klaar!
So, one wonders if any sane person would ever expect corruption to fight itself. That will never happen anywhere. What can happen is people standing up and fighting corruption – the really “Corruption” as well known to all of us. Anything less than confronting the “Corruption” itself will always be futile.
Mugabe is the epitome of corruption and how then can you expect him to fight corruption.
I don’t understand why people even expect him even to do a simple thing about it when he is the chief architect of it and the embodiment of what corruption is in Zimbabwe.
Mugabe has been corrupt from day one using his power and authority as cover. Now he uses the untouchable president’s office to advance the corruption agenda.
His associates have accumulated millions of dollars on the back of corruption which Mugabe has made sure nobody investigates and nobody will ever be arrested unless they cross the line and leave his ship.
I think that as long as Mugabe is leader corruption will continue to thrive and reach the lowest levels of society because it gets approval from the ageing geriatric who may be asleep to many things but very much awake to make sure his kith and kin get the best deals in whatever way including corrupt deals which have got his avowal.
HOW DO YOU DO IT WHEN YOU YOURSELF ARE NOT CLEAN!!!!!! IT IS ZANUPF CULTURE TO BE CORRUPT. THEY SPENT YEARS IN THEIR CHILDHOOD WITH ABSOLUTELY NOTHING AND ARE NOW MAKING UP BY BEING CORRUPT. STEALING FROM POOR!
Zimbabwe will never come right unless Mugabe and his cabinet are uprooted and burnt to ashes and their ashes are to be thrown in to the sea. We need no seed from Mugabe clan as it will be a corrupt seed. We have suffered since he came into power. He has done nothing for the nation; he only brought poverty and suffering. This monster must go!!!
It is difficult to survey any black African government without becoming an afro-pessimist. While all governments everywhere are corrupt to some degree, in black Africa it is overwhelming. There are no black governments with ethics and morals approaching the European norm. When one overlays this with the low IQ’s of Africa, layers of ignorance and incompetence are laminated over the corruption immorality unethicality and greed; the basic fabric of African civilization is described. Clearly they need outside help but cannot bring themselves to accept this fact. They think that by eliminating the whites they will be able to prosper as the whites did thereby implying that somehow the whites were preventing black prosperity. Curiously they are eager to borrow money from outsiders.
May I beg to differ on some of your assertions.
Low IQ is not a problem in Zim… the current lack of education is. Many brilliant youngsters languish in government-imposed ignorance, desiring to fill their minds with the things education can bring, but the quality of education provided by the public education system is nothing but a joke, and only parents with the resources (some in the form of donations from America) can afford to send their children to reputable schools. The vast majority can’t even afford the school fees to send their children to the primary schools… and that’s not for lack of desire by either the parents or the students… it’s an economic problem brought on by ZANU-PF. They own it.
Given education, democracy (honest elections and a government FOR the people), a free press, unbiased judiciary, non-political law enforcement and military, and a free market, the people of Zim would quickly return to the glories of the past… especially, if all the stolen money stashed in off-shore accounts were recovered and used to jump-start the economy with business loans and infrastructure repairs.
The problem isn’t the Zimbabweans… it’s their black masters, the ZANU-PF. Admittedly, it’s those same Zimbabweans who sit and allow the slavery to continue. For that, the Zimbabwean people can be faulted. If they would take a stand, many would go and stand with them.
rhobert and yr entire cabinet plz step down you take us funny.hatichadi taneta nemi dzimbwa dzevanhu hapana chirikunaka.and u zrp muridzimbwa dzevanhu mashaya basa makunetsana nevanhu.
Wow baas mills
Wow baas mills…you really have high IQ hey! Good for you…
Back to serious matters, zanupf lost touch with reality ages ago. Corruption started from the early 80’s (remember Paweni and maize scandal, willow gate scandal, etc) and has permeated through every government department so can no longer be classified as corruption but a norm for successful business deals be it with government (zanupf cadres running the government departments) or the private sector (whatever is left of it – mostly zanupf-associated). So it will take a generation to route out corruption. It’s not in the interest of the current ruling party to fight corruption because they no longer have an idea of what’s wrong and what’s right…maybe baas mills can use his high IQ to reason with Mugabe!