Chinamasa: Sanctions caused corruption

via Chinamasa: Sanctions caused corruption 9 November 2014

FINANCE Minister Patrick Chinamasa has blamed targeted sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe by Western governments in 2002 for the massive corruption taking place in parastatals.

Chinamasa made the remarks while responding to a question posed by a Danish journalist who was part of a Danish government delegation that was visiting Zimbabwe last week.

The Danish delegation was in the country as part of the European state’s re-engagement efforts with President Robert Mugabe’s government.

The journalist wanted to know what measures the Zimbabwean government was putting in place to stop corruption and protect foreign investors.

Chinamasa however sought to turn the tables on the journalist telling him that were it not for sanctions, Zimbabwe would not be corrupt.

“What you need to know is that because of sanctions and because companies were collapsing, which they did, like you know our industries basically collapsed, as formal businesses were collapsing it swelled the ranks of the informal sector,” said Chinamasa.

“People then adopted survival strategies. It was like a war situation; we are now, I think, getting out of that.

“So it means a re-inculcation of the culture of doing business in a straight manner which really had been undermined by the revolution that we had gone through which was basically akin to a war situation,” he said.

Zimbabwe went through a severe economic crisis which peaked in 2007. The crisis was described by the World Bank as the worst in living memory.

Critics blame the economic crisis on mismanagement by President Mugabe but the veteran Zimbabwean leader denies the charge blaming targeted sanctions imposed by Western governments for the collapse.

Zimbabwe was ranked at position 163 out of 174 countries by Transparency International on its Corruption Perception Index, according to a 2012 report. In 2011, Zimbabwe was on position 154.

The Danish government said it was interested in investing in Zimbabwe but raised concerns about Zimbabwe’s indigenisation laws which it said needed to be clarified.

The Danes said Zimbabwe should also compensate white farmers who lost their land in 2000 when the country embarked on a controversial land reform programme.

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