via Zim corruption watchdog ‘toothless’ | Mail & Guardian 07 MAR 2014 CAJ NEWS
Transparency International Zimbabwe has called for the overhaul of the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission amid concern that it is ineffective at dealing with graft.
Nqobani Tshabangu, a Transparency International official, said the organisation had launched a series of public lectures nationwide on the need for the government to appoint a competent anti-corruption body. He described the current commission as a “toothless bulldog”.
“We are lobbying for an effective anti-corruption commission in Zimbabwe,” said Tshabangu on the sidelines of a Transparency International workshop in Bulawayo.
President Robert Mugabe has been under pressure to arrest and prosecute some of the members of his inner circle, including Cabinet ministers, who have been accused of corrupt deals.
Three executives from Air Zimbabwe were recently arrested and subsequently charged for alleged corruption of more than $60-million, amid revelations that the officials had apparently failed to account for two Airbus engines.
Since 2006, out of 147 corruption cases reviewed by the commission, only four have been completed.
Independence from political interference needed
Tobias Guzura of the Zimbabwe Open University, speaking during the public lecture on the need for an effective anti-graft body, said corruption was endemic in Zimbabwe and that there was a need for collaboration between civil society, the government and the private sector.
“Corruption, being a deeply ingrained societal vice, requires the collective effort of both governmental and nonstate actors in fighting it. What is needed in Zimbabwe is an anti-corruption agency which is independent from political interference, with security of tenure. [This is] not what we have now.”
Zimbabwe was ranked 163 on a list of 176 countries on Transparency International’s 2012 corruption perceptions index. – CAJ News
COMMENTS
“Endemic”, “ingrained”, valid terms to apply to the culture of corruption that ZANUPF has bred in Zim. Each man doing what is right in his own opinion, acting by his own standards, and doing whatever would increase his own station, power, and wealth, without regard to law and morality. Over time, and with the the wealth and assets of so many of the leadership growing in unexplained magnitude, others joined in to engage in the corruption to begin collecting their own filthy lucre at the expense of the citizens and moral standards. Greed runs rampant, and in a frenzy the government coffers are emptied. The parastatals’ leaders run up the debts taking obscene salaries and loans for themselves, and drain the treasuries. Productive farms are taken from rightful white owners, and the best of the farms are given to the ZANUPF elite. Few landless pheasants receive stands as bribes prior to the elections. and some of those are taken back to be given to “more important men” after the election cycle.
The thefts have far-reaching consequences, including reducing foreign investments necessary for enterprise expansions and operating capital. Businesses struggle to pay their employees, plants close and move to other countries more conducive for business. Taxes are raised beyond reason to maintain the flow into the government coffers where it can easily be pilfered by those in high places. The infrastructure goes wanting, and nears collapse. In all the process, certain of the ZANUPF officials have become millionaires, some, it is said are now billionaires… the sources of their wealth they refuse to identify.
Is there a need for a toothed lion to be a Anti-Corruption Commission..? A lion with the authority to investigate without opposition… a lion capable of appointing honorable, untouchable men of integrity to access banking records and fund transfers, to look into ever nook and cranny, to follow the paper trails and “connect the dots”. A lion empowered to compile and protect the evidence, and present it to those who will make their presentations of it to the magistrates to prosecute the evil men, and recover all that belongs to the people of Zim.
Does Zim need such a toothed lion? The answer is yes.
Was it not Zanus plan to have a toothless bulldog so that they could blunder.
I will say it again if you are the big tree We are the small axe
Ready to cut you down .Zanu will be cut down. The people demand it… History demands it HOKOYO…BASSOPA..