via Bulawayo24 NEWS | Mugabe blames corruption on the British by Staff Reporter 21 February 2014
President Robert Mugabe has blamed corruption on the system that Zimbabwe inherited from the British.
In an interview on the state TV to mark his 90th birthday Mugabe also blamed some Government ministers of failing to properly supervise entities falling under their briefs, resulting in executives at State-linked firms earning mega-salaries.
“What does VaCuthbert Dube tell us, (he says) ko chitadzo chandakaita ndechipi?” said President Mugabe.
“Punishment of those who are proved to have been corrupt, to have been stealing – we lock them up. Vambononzwawo jeri kuti rinorwadza sei.”
“Line ministry or the minister was a yes minister – standoffish,” he said.
“Minister haiwa tinokuitirai basa, do not mind. The permanent secretary stands in between.
“The minister and the rest of the department yeGovernment, the minister and the boards you got to have the permanent secretary, then the chairman of the board who comes to report hee, yaa zvinhu zviri kufamba zvakanaka and so on and you rely on that.
“The board itself does not carry out examinations, inspection of what is being done by the parastatal if it is a parastatal and the minister is far removed when it comes to parastatals and that is where most of the corruption occurred. And you can see that these are institutions which were far removed from direct control by the Government – creations of the British we inherited.”
“If there are losses they rely on Government to come with subventions and reports, yes, there will be reports from parastatals, the system we had inherited from Britain – annual reports, but loss after loss. Why? If there is profit – minimal.
“What is happening? Because there was no close supervision, morons took advantage of the system and wanted to benefit themselves and enrich themselves.”
“So, there it is. It is corruption everywhere even kumachurch kwese,” he said. “Ndange ndichiverenga chimwe chipepa change chichiti kuUnited States, is it kuuniversity, kwanzi people can attend, is it the church, in n*dity, being n*de, n*ked?
“Just imagine what it means. Zvinorevei izvozvo? Hamuna mabhurukwa zvese. Munonamata Mwari upi, haiwaiwa? And if you just take pictures moenda nawo you are not hiding anything, you are showing everything.”
“I have said our Government must not repeat the ills of the Government of National Unity of yesterday, therefore, it must not even have the shadow of it,” he said.
“It must work as a Government that is in control of full resources – that takes into account the fact of the hardships the people have gone through all along, the loss they suffered through hyperinflation and the difficulties imposed not just by sanctions, but even by the traumatic conditions by the drought and so on and so we must have normal salaries.
“Yes, we cannot have them from day one, but we must have them on paper for a start and work towards their being fulfilled in practice and that is what Chinamasa is doing.
“First, he was saying we could not do it and I said well, if you cannot do it then tell me we can get someone who can do it. That is why I announced that salaries have got to be slightly above poverty datum line…
“You know, let us think about their situations also. A person gets US$200, US$250, USS$300 or so, taxes, a portion goes and ndiyo yokunge yaidyiwawo nanaCuthbert Dube ikokowo kuPSMAS and he has got marates and rents to pay, transport to pay even though maybe a little given by way of those charges and mafees kuchikoro, medical fees when people get sick, food.
“Ndaimbobvunza (Tendai) Biti kuti nhaiwe Biti do you think we can really make a living nemasalaries aya zvichinzi aah ndinomboenda kumasupermarkets neUS$100 ndinodzoka nechange? NdiBiti uyu. Hanzi ndinenge ndazadza kutenga zvemumba.
“Aenda neUS$100 and (Elton) Mangoma was there to say yes yes, but that is nonsensical. Even the President wants to be paid well now so let us pay our people the salaries they deserve.
“I am glad they have gone some three-quarters way in meeting the poverty datum line requirement and I hope by June they will have come there, but that is alright and our workers are understanding.”
“We do not also want unnecessary demonstrations and strikes,” he said.
“When they are well based with grievances that genuine, well, do we have to say totuma mapurisa to quell them when they have genuine grievances? You cannot do that.
“Ya, this might affect adversely our capacity to undertake maobjectives eZim-Asset, but we will be trying to derive capacity from our mining sector and other areas which can yield some monetary capacity for us.”
COMMENTS
34 years in power he still blames the British system for corruption, moron. Smith worked with the same system and the degree of corruption was not as high as this. The idiot is exposing himself as a terrible administrator. He talks of a disjointed organization and useless ministers but he has done nothing about .
Even as a mafia boss he is totally clueless on how to run this country, Zanu should fire him .Zanoids should really be ashamed of him.
Ministry of psychomotor, my backside ,this chap must shut up to his grave.
Mugabe has never accepted responsibility for anything that ever went wrong. He is completely unsuited to be a national leader.
The man is not only demented but also a greedy fool. Trash but very evil and dangerous Trash
Symptomatic of Africa. It’s not only Bob, rather every African President is capable of taking a fully functioning country, run it into the ground and then blame the people that built every structure, from roads to hospitals and schools. Sad thing there are some idiots in the West who think that the bankrupt West should send more money with no conditions to these same Kleptomaniacs.
It’s always someone else’s fault A! So it has been for 34 years, and so it will continue. Above, in the article, are the ramblings of the village idiot who should be censored and locked up for the good of all.
Does anyone else suspect a coup by pharmaceuticals? The guy can’t even follow his own train of thought any more.
This guy is an arse. In fact he is not even that. An arse serves a useful function.
This Robert Mugabe guy is some piece of work. Blaming everyone else for his fallacies. This man has been in possession of all the reports on the vices of his clique. But he did nothing about them for 14 years. His main myopic focus for the last 14 years was trouncing on the opposition, turning a blind eye to all the looters in his backyard
He is truly a genius.
at the end of the day ONE FACT and ONE FACT ALONE remains – Rhodesia was a jewel in the World and mugabe and his Zanupf Party DESTROYED the jewel and made Zimbabwe a 4th world Country! No amount of propaganda and trying to push the blame onto the West, the whites or anyone else will alter THIS FACT and Mugabe is proven to be the Worlds greatest idiot – even with 7 plus “degrees”
He lacks the qualities of a leader. 34 years like this is like 34 years of punishment.
I would have thought that at 90 he would have learned something! The guilty always try and find a scapegoat.
In any case, why does the government need to run 78 parastatals? Surely most of these should have been privatised over the last 34 years, leaving the government to worry about its core duties.
Yes – he inherited the system from the ‘British’, but he should have realised that it was system meant to combat sanctions imposed on Rhodesia. That’s the first thing he should have dismantled.
Thats not gud for president to blame Britain, becoz his gvrnmnt ministries are the looters. Since independence what they can tel us. Its problms after problms, beco z they want to loot eveything in the country. While the poor are suffering.
Unoita kupererwa chokwadi. Ndiye mutungamiri wenyika for 34yrs uyu! Kkkkkkkkk
God help us, is this the president talking??
You can say what you want but the president shows how dull he is ,do you correct a wrong by doing wrong ,only zombies say he is inteligent, only by using the army like his personal bodyguards.
This old man is the most stupid arrogant dictator the world over. A man of yesterday trying to be smart and a political and economic genius yet he hardly have any clue of things on the ground in his own country. What is the difference between him and his daft deputy Mai Mujuru. How can he have a go on the GNU which arrested that galloping inflation of 2008 and before. He thinks that people are still politically gullible like in the 1980s when we used to believe whatever he said even when he is lying. Gone are those days you idiot. You have done enough damage and looting to our economy and country. How can you lie with a straight face that the system you inherited from the British is responsible for corruption done by your lieutenants. Just admit that you and your team have messed up and step down or call for fresh elections.
i feel pity for Mugabe and his Zimbabwe
Mr President you were the head of state that is why Biti always consulted you,you agreed with it now you want to play the blame game you have so many degrees in.
It shows that this is a bushy party with bushy ideas for 34 years the blind man surounded by blind people who pretent not to see when they can see what to steal and brutally punish anyone who dares to point a finger using state machinery they created to deal with any opposition.
Your headline is deceptive. Having watched the interview, it is clear the the president is not “BLAMING” the british. Shame on you. He has clearly accepted the short-comings, including general greed, non-involvement of the parent ministries, and lack of over-sight by boards and incompetence in some instances. He also goes on to say that alot of these institutions were setup during the time of Rhodesia. He does not imply that they are the cause of the corruption, he is simply saying that some of these setups are dated and need revising. The dated nature of some of these institutions have created loop-holes that have been exploited. During the time that these mega salaries started being earned, many of the parent ministries were being run by MDC officials, Public service, finance, Health, co-home affairs etc.. Lets call a spade a spade.. a lot of people have dropped the ball and we need to clean this up. The blame game does not work, and at no point during the interview was blame placed on the british….
So we are remotely under British rule kakakaka maiweeeeee mudhara warwara uyu. why celebrating independence. Why appointing parastatal boards and ministers who dont do anything other than YES this is crazy!!!!!. I thought we fought the war to remove the system that favoured a few and was a breeding groung for corruption. Mabhurakwacha (BSAP) vaisambotora chioko muhomwe muroad kkkkkkk President vanyepa apa