‘Arrest corrupt officials’

Chronicle Reporters
CIVIL society groups in Bulawayo have called for stiffer penalties to be imposed on officials fingered in corruption, saying exposing the vice and dissolving company boards was not enough.Debating the impact of corruption at a meeting in the city on Thursday, participants, who included academics, politicians and residents, commended government for exposing corruption in parastatals.

“Those who have been exposed are just sacrificial lambs. The government should do more than just exposing corrupt individuals,” said one of the participants from the floor.
Institute of Development Studies director at the National University of Science and Technology, Dr Peter Nkala, said government should adopt a tougher stance to weed out corruption.

“The government lacks capacity to deal with corruption. The government has to set up an anti-corruption committee in line with the new constitution that will deal with the corruption issue,” he said.

Cornelious Ncube, a development studies lecturer at Lupane State University, also challenged civic society to denounce corruption.
“The whole society has to come on board and take a stand against corruption instead of just making statements after reading about it in the press,” he said.
He challenged the civic society to develop a culture of whistle blowing, saying it was one way of flashing out corruption.

The participants said laws like the Public Order Security Act and Access to Information, Protection and Privacy Act (AIPPA) should be amended to allow people to discuss issues openly and bring public officers to account.

MDC-T Bulawayo provincial chairman and Makokoba legislator Gorden Moyo said dealing with corruption should go beyond what is exposed in the media.