via President Mugabe protects corrupt officials, says former Minister 13 March 2014 CrisisZimbabwe.org
FORMER Minister of State Enterprises and Parastatals Dr. Gorden Moyo has sensationally said that President Robert Mugabe protects corrupt government officials.
Speaking at a public discussion forum jointly organised by Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition (CiZC) and Transparency International Zimbabwe (TIZ) as part of the public accoutability Dialogue series in the southern provincial capital Masvingo on March 6, 2014, Dr moyo castigated President Mugabe for shielding his corrupt ministers from prosecution .
“In as much as corrupt ministers can’t let go of their corrupt parastatal bosses, corrupt Mugabe can’t let go of his corrupt ministers,” Moyo said.
Mugabe’s official spokesperson, George Charamba, admitted in January his own erring by being involved in drawing of tens of thousands of dollars from the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) as a board member.
This was at a time employees went unpaid for over half a year, and the institutions had no basic equipment such cameras.
Charamba had immediately indicated he would be ready to be fired by his boss, although President Mugabe who has always indicated that he does not tolerate corruption did nothing beyond talk amid the salacious revelations.
Dr Moyo further said that President Mugabe was always aware of the hefty salaries before they burst into the media, sensationally adding that the nonagenarian president is not guilty of complacency, but complicity.
“There is nothing novel about what has been exposed by the media”, Dr Moyo said.
Moyo said he had more evidence of corruption than what has been reported in the media, adding what has been revealed in the past months was a fraction of what is yet to be “excavated from the minefield of corruption.”
Moyo said a survey done by his former ministry during the Inclusive Government revealed that the average salary for parastatal bosses had been US20, 000.00.
Cabinet had recommended the salaries to be lowered to US5000.00, but “the outliers were shocking” because they were very high; and yet the line ministers did not act allegedly because they wanted to protect their appointed heads of parastatals.
Dr Moyo said the involvement of military personnel aligned to the Zanu-PF party heightened the levels of corruption in parastatals.
The former minister claimed that 2000 military personnel had been seconded to the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) during Operation Maguta, and they are allegedly double dipping.
He alleged that more soldiers were corruptly benefiting from other parastatals and diamond mines allegedly because Zanu-Pf owed them the election “victory” of 2008.
Moyo added that about 70 000 ghost workers allegedly linked to Zanu-Pf remained on the government payroll.
He also said that the State Procurement Board was actually the most corrupt entity in the country.
Gladys Hatshwayo, the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition (CiZC) Board member and Zimbabwe Civic Education Trust (Zimcet) Director who chaired the meeting said citizens must not derive “comic relief” from corruption revelations, but must demand accountability and good governance.
Citizens who attended the meeting said the accountability dialogue should be taken to the rural areas, that a commission of inquiry should be set up to investigate corrupt entities, and that the African Peer Review Mechanism to monitor corruption under the NEPAD framework must be adhered to in Zimbabwe. Participants also agreed to take corrupt officials to task by protesting and demanding for their dismissal and prosecution.
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