The warning by Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa for corrupt Zimbabweans to mend their ways or face the wrath of the law could turn into an empty threat as the country’s corruption watchdog, the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission, remains dysfunctional because it is financially crippled.
The commission is saddled with a debt of nearly $450 000 dating back to 2009 with the bulk, $312 000, owed to the private sector.
According to the chairman of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Defence, Home Affairs and Security Services, Clifford Sibanda, the commission is also not likely to be able to carry out the Corruption Baseline Survey which it had budgeted for as a priority. The survey was expected to cost $300 000.
Zimbabwe has been rated as one of the most corrupt countries in the world and was ranked 156 out of 175 countries in this year Transparency International Corruption Perception Index.
Last year it was ranked as the third most corrupt country in Africa in a survey by Afrobarometer.
Mnangagwa, who is Acting President, warned Zimbabweans that the government would have no mercy on corrupt people.
“Hatina tsitsi necorruption. Saka vanenge vakaita corruption kare ndinokuyambirai pano tiri munyika yaChirumhanzu endai munochera zvikomba pasi mopfira mate moti zvagumira pano…. nekuti masamba asiyana,” he was quoted by The Herald as saying.
Several cases of corruption were exposed this year but the culprits are still to be brought to book. It is, therefore, not money that the government needs first, but the political will and commitment to eradicate corruption, starting from the top.
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