Zanu-PF factionalism playing out in the fight against corruption
By Jealousy Mawarire
The pomp and fanfare that characterised the launch of the so-called Against Corruption Together (ACT) betrayed some sinister Zanu-PF factional politics at play.
While it is quite evident that the Judicial Services Commission (JSC) was at the forefront of the so-called green card against corruption, there were many things that played out at the ceremony that betrayed the real agenda behind this activity.
It seemed all procedural that Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa officiated at the ceremony as he is minister of justice under whose purview the Judicial Services Commission falls, but it became apparently clear something more that Mnangagwa’s official capacity was at play when Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku took more than 29 minutes introducing him with eulogies that bordered on deism.
Chidyausiku portrayed Mnangagwa as incorruptible and delved into the political marketing terrain wherefrom he presented an account, quite graphic of how Anglican Father Emmanuel Ribeiro played an important role securing the services of a doctor who was used by the Rhodesian courts to ascertain Mnangawa’s real age when he was arrested and charged for insurgency and banditry in 1965 by the Ian Smith racist regime.
Chidyausiku gave a history lesson, laced with typical Zanu-PF bootlicking antics of the highest order, telling his audience how the doctor ascertained Mnangagwa’s age by counting his teeth—a funny ‘judicial’ way of determining whether one was a minor or not.
Not to be outdone was the Law Society of Zimbabwe President Vimbai Nyemba who burst into a rendition of Zex Manatsa’s song Dzvinyu kuzvambira zuva kuona mwena making funny insinuations that the crocodile, Mnangagwa’s nickname, had plugged all the holes into which corrupt lizards would hide in leaving them with no options but to run into the mountains.
There was a real feeling and sense that those in attendance were desperate to show Mnangagwa their allegiance in the now obvious Zanu-PF factional succession politics.
The irony however, was that Nyemba was lost to the fact that the real crocodile in Zanu-PF is President Robert Mugabe of the Gushungo, Ngwenya (Ngwena) totem hence if any crocodile was responsible for plugging the holes it had to be him and this would leave the pretenders, the lizards, with no option but to run and scurry for cover in some dingy mountain.
But this was not all. The most important thing that came out of the launch of this ACT which some have chosen not to call Against Corruption Together but Association of Corrupt Tomboys, is the clear message that government has no intention of constituting the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) as provided for by section 254 of the constitution of Zimbabwe.
By announcing the formation of anti-corruption units in the ministry of justice, the police, prison services and the Law Society of Zimbabwe without clearly defining the relationship these would have with the constitutional body called ZACC raises suspicion about the motive behind the formation of these sub-units.
One cannot but suspect that the anti-corruption subunits created through ACT are meant to provide friendly anti-corruption investigators within particular ministries who would never investigate their bosses but would rather close out the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission from poking its nose into these often corrupt ministries and parastatals under them.
Rather than forming these fragmented institutions, is it not prudent for government, with the help of Justice Rita Makarau and her JSC and donors that they roped in like the Royal Danish Embassy, to capacitate the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission with these donor funds so that it begins to do corruption investigation even in the ministry of justice, the courts, among government ministers and in parastatals?
If the JSC’s motivation is to fight corruption, why not help the ZACC, a constitutional body mandated to fight corruption rather than try and create parallel structures. What are these parallel structures meant to hide?
We are made to understand that the real reason why Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Zimbabwe en-route to South Africa for the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) was to press the Zimbabwe government for help in investigating corrupt deals involving Chinese companies investing in the country including the one involved in the deal that established the Zimbabwe Defence College.
Jinping, we are reliably informed, is not amused with the level of corruption in deals that Chinese companies have cut in Zimbabwe and the situation was made worse after the arrest of Sam Pa, who is accused, among other things, of corruptly helping the government of Zimbabwe, and some senior security officers, to illegally sell the country’s diamonds.
These investigations, at the behest of the Chinese Presidency, have, unfortunately implicated government officials whom the JSC want to present as incorruptible and whose acquiescence they seek in their attempts at usurping the powers of the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission.
It is quite clear that the so-called ACT initiative is a campaign gimmick, a public relations stunt that is meant to cleanse some otherwise very corrupt officials for political expediency.
Right now, the only constitutional body mandated with the fight against corruption, the ZACC has no commissioners and some of the names that have been thrown around as potential commissioners are known criminals yet no one has cared to ensure the ZACC is properly constituted and adequately resourced so that it carries out its mandate without fear or favour.
It is dishonesty, on the part of some public officials, to try and form parallel corruption busting entities when they care not about the establishment of an anti-corruption commission as dictated by the law.
It is even more worrying that some of the officials that were paraded at the launch of ACT were involved in acts of corruption when they abused their offices to stop prosecution of a known gold dealer who had pleaded guilty to possession of 9008,1 grams of gold then worth US$255 501, 59 without a licence whom the police had arrested at his residence in Umwinsdale in Harare on 1 September 2009.
Despite the accused’s plea of guilty, one of the officials that was paraded by the JSC at the launch of their Against Corruption Together (ACT) campaign who was then working in the Attorney General Criminal Division Section and two accomplices, one of whom is now being charged with criminal abuse of office, after realising that prosecution was now in motion, wrote a memorandum dated 15th of October 2009 to the trial prosecutor instructing him to stop the trial of the minerals dealer notwithstanding the overwhelming evidence against him that was contained in the docket compiled by the police and witness statements compiled by Theresa Jena of the ZRP Minerals Unit and Ivan Chihota of the Ministry of Mines.
These are the characters that were on Friday 5 February 2016, trying to champion the fight against corruption side-lining the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission which is investigating them.
It is quite apparent that the ACT initiative is meant to stifle the activities of the ZACC by creating parallel anti-corruption units that turn corruption suspects into anti-corruption crusaders, kuita varoyi vanatsikamutanda (turning witches into witch-hunters).
Apart from shielding these corrupt public officials from the ZACC, the initiative is meant to spruce up the image of some politicians who are vying for high political offices but have been fingered in a lot of corrupt deals including those involving Chinese companies that the Chinese President is investigating.
The fight against corruption can never be successful if the corrupt are left to choose and help constitute the groups that are tasked to investigate them. The Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission is the constitutional body that is mandated by the law to fight corruption and everyone should help it to do its work with uttermost impartiality, without fear and with adequate resources not to try to create funny parallel structures for political expediency.
The proper functioning of the ZACC, with trained anti-corruption activists, incorruptible commissioners, adequate remuneration for the secretariat and every citizen’s support including the support of public officials, the Attorney General’s office, the Commissioner General of Police, the Prosecutor General, the courts, among other stakeholders is what we need not these funny units created by ACT for political expediency.
