Zimbabwe: Corruption Dominated Debate in 2006

The Herald (Harare) - January 3, 2007
Posted to the web January 3, 2007

By Alfred Chagonda - Harare

CORRUPTION dominated debate in Zimbabwe during 2006, the year which also witnessed a number of high-profile individuals being hauled before the courts.

The Government established the Ministry of State for State Enterprises, Anti-Monopolies and Anti-Corruption two years ago and the long arm of the law has not spared a number of prominent people in Government and business. It had become common in the country for people to expect to pay a bribe for them to acquire such documents as birth and death certificates and driver's licence as well as to secure places at schools and colleges and to get a job. President Mugabe said the scourge of corruption continues to rear its ugly head, manifested through the abuse of power and unfair business practices, and the amassing of ill-gotten wealth by those in positions of authority in the public, private and civic sectors. The President said this in Parliament when he addressed Members of the House of Assembly and Senate during his 19th State of the Nation Address. "Government will not relent in its efforts to weed out such bad apples in our midst no matter how highly placed or well connected they may happen to be," the President said. To give teeth to the anti-corruption drive, Cde Mugabe appointed an Anti-Corruption Commission. Minister of State for State Enterprises, Anti-Monopolies and Anti-Corruption Cde Munyaradzi Paul Mangwana said the Government was working on reforms to strengthen anti-corruption laws to ensure that perpetrators got deterrent sentences. He said corruption caused disequilibrium in the economy, resulting in only a few people benefiting at the expense of the majority. "Loopholes in the legal framework and a fragmented anti-corruption policy allows the exacerbation of corruption," he said. Cde Mangwana said corruption was one of the greatest threats to socio-economic development and Zimbabweans needed to play their part to reject it in all its forms. Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Dr Gideon Gono on several occasions pointed out that corruption was a threat to national development. Former Zimbabwe United Passenger Company board chairman Charles Nherera was in August sentenced to three years in prison for sociliting for a US$85 000 bribe from businessman Mr Jayesh Shah.

Mr Shah is the owner of Gift Investments which supplied buses to the transport utility. In the same month, Zimbabwe was appointed chair of the Task Force of Senior Officials and Secretary to the Treasury of the Eastern and Southern Africa Money Laundering Group for the next year. The appointment came at a time when the central bank had launched Project Sunrise, one of whose objectives was to combat corruption and money laundering.

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