Let’s walk the talk on corruption 

Source: Let’s walk the talk on corruption – DailyNews Live

STAFF WRITER      4 December 2017

HARARE – Last week, President Emmerson Mnangagwa took the first bold step
towards tackling the rot that has destroyed Zimbabwe’s economy.

Mnangagwa issued a statement, giving individuals and corporates up to
three months to return money and assets they externalised.

The previous week, he had declared war against graft, marking a total
shift from what we had gotten used to as a nation.

In his words, “indiscipline must stop” – such rowdiness had manifested
itself in different forms and sheds, with its ugly head literally
exterminating the very backbone of our society.

The level of thievery in high offices and even to the lowest level in our
social hierarchy had reached alarming levels. It could be likened to the
state that the two cities of Sodom and Gomorrah in the Bible had reached
which prompted their destruction.

The corruption didn’t even spare the clergy with high profile scandals
involving men and women of the cloth being recorded; are they still men of
God or they are now mutated to being men of Gold because of the love for
money?

As if this wasn’t enough, the level of corruption in the police force was
probably higher than any other arm of government; we were short of
additional police officers to police the police; maybe this explains why
the army intervened.

Surely the call by the president came at the right time. If it had
delayed, one wouldn’t want to imagine how the country’s affairs were going
to unfold only a few months down the line. The scourge of corruption did
not start a few years ago. It has been there because of bad leadership
throughout the 37-year reign of former president Robert Mugabe with
corruption eating into our democracy.

Corruption has been rife from as far back as the first decade of
independence. With the declaration of war against corruption, the
president ought to stand by his words. He must demonstrate that he means
what he says.

They say a fish rots from the head but the correction of an anomaly also
starts from the top.

Walking the talk is the only way to go if we are to avoid reliving
history.

The culture of celebrating ill-gotten wealth by the public officials ought
to be wiped out forthwith.

The former minister of Finance (Ignatius Chombo) who has been in remand
prison for the past few weeks is only the first of the many cases that we
should witness if the president is serious in the fight against graft.

There are many other ministers, parliamentarians, parastatal bosses,
pastors and business people who should account for their actions and
wealth.

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