via ‘Mugabe too old to fight corruption’ March 14, 2014 by Moses Matenga NewsDay
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe has lost the fight to curb corruption among top government officials and ministers because of his advanced age, academic and political analyst Ibbo Mandaza has said.
The political analyst said Mugabe (90) no longer had the energy to effectively deal with graft.
He was addressing guests at the AMH Conversations in Harare on Wednesday evening.
Mandaza, who headed the parastatals commission in the late 1980s, said during that period, Mugabe used to personally approve lists of nominees selected to sit on parastatal boards.
“In those days, Mugabe would go through every board with me and would agree. No civil servant could sit on the board and ministers could not interfere with the board. The board chairman was in charge and responsible for the appointment of the chief executive officers,” Mandaza said.
“In my day, the President would go through every appointment of every board, what has happened over the years, centralisation of functions in one person so as is natural, as he gets older; he has lacked the capacity of oversight. To put it bluntly, we have a Head of State who is too old to do these functions and it’s as simple as that. There is a kind of hopelessness as it is. As long as the current leadership, especially the Head of State is there, I don’t see anything.”
Speaking at the same event, MDC-T Mabvuku-Tafara MP James Maridadi said the high-level corruption being witnessed in government circles indicated a leadership void.
Transparency International Zimbabwe (TIZ) executive director Mary-Jane Ncube said TIZ had a dossier of corrupt public officials, but was reluctant to expose them for fear of reprisals by State security agents.
But Zanu PF spokesperson Rugare Gumbo said: “It’s wrong for anyone to attribute corruption to the President. The problem affects everybody and he cannot deal with everything. It’s also wrong to say that the President can’t address the problems of corruption. They can’t be solved by one person, but a collective of people. He has the politburo and Cabinet to deal with such issues. Everyone is fighting corruption and it should be everyone’s responsibility.”
COMMENTS
Poor Gumbo, trying to defend the indefensible. Your boss is corrupt ,end of.
At least Gumbo has the common sense to state the obvious to those with less than average IQ.
By way of example we could say Tsvangerai is not bright enough to tackle corruption.
Fact is you have different ministries dealing with these issues and things are starting to happen now unfortunately for opposition supporters is seems MDC officials are the ones who are in the limelight but they stand out with their magnitude of corruption. Burt then its up to those wearing blinkers to put politics aside and just talk about anti corruption to the benefit of us all – Its very stupid to think that the president personally has to fight anti corruption he just has to support those against corruption which he is currently doing evidenced by news media reports rather than fictitious propaganda reports.
Senile, to be precise!
Mugabe or Apolitical?
you, an honest man
To hear Mandaza talk about corruption is a bit rich. This man is corrupt.
Corruption is now part and parcel of Zimbabwe society. Zim is actually no.1 in terms of corruption. We need to thank Mugabe and Zanu for making us achieve this accolade. Noone can take it away from us. A luta continua.
there is a serious lack or reason or logic.
Who saw Mugabe take a gun to someone’s head and say you must be corrupt you must steal, what a stupid thought. Fact is, they all did it by themselves a fault of education/ parenting and even you hero’s in the MDC got rich at our expense every ministry they touched was looted.
Changing the president wont stop corruption as from the track record of the inclusive government corruption would increase.
A t least now we have a stable government effort is being brought to bear against corruption – whilst MDC were there, there was not one case.- now boards are dissolved people arrested and you complain presumably because they are your friends.
If someone asked Apolitical to lick their ass, he would do it smiling!
Tosh You really need some education so you can make a sensible comment ion the subject and not rubbish remarks because you have no knowledge and feel inferior.
Calling people names will never make you a sensible human being or a man, you ewill simply remain an idiot.
Mugabe is now to old to die. His stench keeps him going.
Most people find Ibbo Mandaza confusing because he would talks sense one day and nonsense the next. Corruption has been always been the key stone of Mugabe’s patronage system. It was no secret that Sydney Gata was appointed General Manager of ZESA because was Mugabe’s brother-in-law after he divorced his wife to marry Mugabe’s sister.
Mandaza’s assertion that Mugabe (90)was too old and thus no longer had the energy to effectively deal with graft will make sense if he meant that way back in 1980, Mugabe was already too old!
Mugabe cannot stop now corruption no more than he could back in 1980s when the problem started because it was corruption that bought the blind loyalty of those who kept him and Zanu PF in power. He could not stop corruption no more than a thief can cut off his own hand.
Mugabe may be old and feeble he still he can cut off his hand – beside I will happily supply him an electric saw and will even suggest cutting off the head!