The Insider

Mugabe not serious about curbing corruption- Civil society organisations say President Robert Mugabe is not serious about curbing corruption because if he was he would have protected members of the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission. According to the Standard today, the organisations said if Mugabe was serious, he would have named, shamed and punished cabinet ministers and top government officials so far implicated in corruption including those alleged to have demanded bribes from potential investors. Last week Mugabe said he had been told that a minister had demanded US$70 000 to facilitate an investment while a Member of Parliament demanded US$50 000 but he did not name the two. “Why is the minister nameless and faceless? Is the President now afraid of his ministers? It shows there is no genuine interest in fighting corruption,” a member of the civil society was quoted by the Standard as saying. Last year he said heads would roll after he was informed that Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation chair Godwills Masimirembwa was involved in a US$6 million scandal but this year he exonerated Masimirembwa saying the Ghanaian investors had lied. Mugabe has previously said ministers had demanded bribes of up to US$10 million but no one has been brought to book yet.

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Zimbabwe is currently a clean slate on which anyone can write. The government is pushing for indigenisation saying this is the only way it can empower its people. Others argue that the country cannot do without foreign investment. Indigenisation is scaring away foreign investors? Who is right? It depends on your own persuasion. Academic and former Tanzanian minister Abdulrahman Babu argued in the postscript to Walter Rodney’s book: How Europe underdeveloped Africa that foreign investment is not the solution. But that was more than 40 years ago. Here is an excerpt.

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Police have been ordered to stop operating kombis, the Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Ziyambi Ziyambi said on Wednesday but he could not state the date when the order was given.

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The Member of Parliament for Buhera South Joseph Chinotimba says Birchenough Bridge, a single-arch suspension bridge on the Save River completed in 1935, should be declared a tourist attraction and people should pay for using it and taking pictures.

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The Deputy Minister of Home Affairs had denied that there is rampant corruption within the Zimbabwe Republic Police and listed a number of measures that he said were aimed at ensuring that corruption is minimised.

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Applications for passports will be processed at district level before the end of this year if the district offices are connected by satellite link, the deputy Minister of Home Affairs Ziyambi Ziyambi said on Wednesday.

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The Minister of State for Bulawayo Eunice Sandi Moyo said she was not a tribalist and would not reserve jobs in Bulawayo for the people of Bulawayo but would give jobs to anyone with the right documents.

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The Movement for Democratic Change shadow cabinet today said it was disturbed by attempts to gag parliament through unconstitutional and undemocratic rulings by the Speaker Jacob Mudenda.

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Kuwadzana Member of Parliament Nelson Chamisa says there should be a dedicated channel broadcasting Parliament live because people want to see which legislators are sleeping during debates instead of representing them.

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War veterans’ leader Jabulani Sibanda says Movement for Democratic Change secretary-general Tendai Biti should join the Zimbabwe African National Union –Patriotic Front instead of forming another party that has the same ideals as ZANU-PF.

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