Name, shame and shackle

via Name, shame and shackle – The Zimbabwean 25 February 2015

Mnangagwa says Mugabe will soon name, shame and shackle corrupt government officials. It feels like déjà vu. Robert Mugabe has made the same threats since Willowgate but has arrested no one.

The pure, unseasoned truth – unpalatable to some – is that Mugabe is incapable of fighting corruption. It is very likely that he is powerless to act on graft because he himself is not as white as the milk from Gushungo Dairy.

He should prove to us that his own business empire is not built on ill-gotten funds. Can he honestly say that, on his civil service salary, he purchased a herd of dairy cows, installed state of the art equipment and built his business, using his own resources, to its present size? We have heard no official explanation of Bona’s $5 million luxury apartment in Hong Kong.

Zanu (PF) publicly denounces multi-farm ownership but the President owns several farms totalling 10,000 acres – that we know of. Many of Mugabe’s juniors certainly know all the burial sites for the President’s many skeletons – so to speak. This is why, despite claims of evidence on Mujuru’s corrupt business practises, she will remain untouched.

Among Mugabe’s blue eyed boys – the likes of Kasukuwere, Chombo, Mpofu – there are vast amounts of wealth for which there is no proper accounting explanation. Perhaps Mnangagwa’s speech is an early April Fool’s joke and the punch line is the VP’s DRC diamond scandal, or his double storey mansion, which dominates the landscape of Zvishavane, and is worthy of a slot on Robin Leach’s Lifestyles of The Rich & Famous.