Let’s gang-fight corruption

lie incessantly that “there is no political will in the country to fight corruption”.
This is so because the country’s leadership has used every opportunity to castigate and speak against co-rruption in the different sectors of the economy.

Only recently at the burial of Retired General Solomon Mujuru, President Mugabe said “corruption is there in the country among us and only a thief gets rich overnight. We have laws and we don’t want a country of thieves, but we want a country with people with discipline”
This statement was followed last week by the swearing in of a nine-member Anti-Corruption Commission by President Mugabe marking – the beginning of concerted efforts by the inclusive Government to curb the vice.

The vice has condemned the country to number 134 out of 178 nations ranking by the Transparency International (2010), Corruption Perceptions Index.
Recognition of corruption as a problem in the country and subsequent action taken by President Mugabe is tangible evidence that there is political will to tackle the problem. But the truth be told, the buck does not stop with the Head of State to curb this vice which cuts across political, social and economic divide and has deadly effects on politics, economy, administration and national institutions, posing a serious threat to development.

We all envision a corruption-free society where its citizens are guarded by national interest, professionalism, integrity and ubuntu for the development of the nation. Thus, every Zimbabwean has a role to play if we are going to win the war against such degeneracy.
One would like to believe the first Anti-Corruption Commission sworn in on September 8, 2005 was not successful because Zimbabweans disassociated themselves from the problem but expected miracles to happen.

The country had witnessed unprecedented corruption fuelled by the crippling effects of the illegal sanctions, which had strangled the macro-economic environment. As one writer once alluded, “the country has been reduced to a nation of dealers out to make a quick buck from the corridors of power, street alleys to flea markets”. It had become the norm that if one wants to get service in government departments one had to be prepared to part with one’s hard-earned cash. The private sector has not been spared as well, as corruption increases the cost of business through the price of illicit payments, bribes and kickbacks.

There is no place for blame games in fighting corruption. PM Morgan Tsvangirai once said, “the (Prime Minister) needs the support of ethical and professional leaders in Government who stand ready to fight corruption. I don’t see this in the crop of public bureaucrats we have, especially from the Zanu-PF party.”
PM Tsvangirai’s naive statement was before the rot in his own party, especially in the councils was exposed.

The MDC, embarrassed at the scale of the corruption of its own officials led shame-faced Tsvangirai to say “we have cases of people who were push-cart operators before they became councillors but now have 10 cars each. Many others were simple market traders are now in big business because of corruption”.
The Prime Minister was made to eat his words as he acknowledged “we admit that our basket has bad apples, but we cannot throw away the whole basket, unfortunately others are now falling for this culture of corruption”.

“A lot of our councillors have breached the citizen’s charter and flouted tender procedures. Our councillors have been emulating and imitating the Zanu-PF model of a councillor.”
The undeniable truth is, corruption cuts across the social, economic and political divide, so it needs the concerted efforts of every Zimbabwe.
Thus, fighting corruption is not a one-man fight. According to a United Nations (UN) paper entitled Corruption & Anti-corruption in Southern Africa, the media has a role to play in “responsibly

investigating, reporting and exposing corruption without undermining the credibility of anti-corruption efforts”.
While civil society organisations have a role to play in monitoring, raising public awareness, research and prevention”
“Corruption is as much structurally conditioned as it is a personal-choice driven behaviour”. Thus, in corruption vulnerable areas (customs, police, procurement, licences and permits, education, employment, immigration and border controls, revenue collection, judiciary) anti-corruption strategies and polices ought to seek to reduce structural opportunities for corruption as well as motivational factors to corrupt and or to be corrupted”, the paper rightly pointed out.
While at the same time, Zimbabweans will be complementing the functions of the Anti-Corruption Commission, which among other things is to 1) investigate cases of corruption in the public and private sectors 2) combat corruption and abuse of power 3) promote honesty, financial discipline and transparency in the public and private sectors 4) secure the prosecution of persons involved in corrupt

activities.
Political will to fight corruption and support anti-corruption efforts is imperative if the country is to succeed in combating this deadly vice.