Taming the roots of corruption

By Derick Matsengarwodzi

Our society is never equal, no matter how often we shall dispute. It is our own quest to attain parity that will give accord in different social classes. Without that, we will always be under constant contest amongst each other without increase. 

George Orwell’s novel, Animal Farm has often been qualified to suit the current Zimbabwean state. In one of the most apt episodes, some other animals soon became more equal than others, meaning their rights and access to resources had been elevated and was never objected.

This classic surely fits into our status.

And perhaps the worst form of corruption to engulf the world shall never be revealed. What we now get are the premature exposures that are extinguished before they really mature. Locally, we have had innumerable commissions that have brought more confusion rather than outcomes.

The ongoing scoop on salary inquest that has received charitable coverage and government endorsement unveils an interesting chapter towards sanctioning the elimination of corruption from our land.

Precisely, the worst form of corruption in history is colonisation. But it seems this colonial mentality has eroded our national ethos and care for humanity in favour of self, and loyal confidante.

However, it seems many of us have dangerous and short memories that are not willing to encode what has hit us today. Let’s rewind to the pre 2000 era and beyond, when pandemonium broke in the land.

At that stage, it seems we did not have a solution to cure the anarchy outbreak. Those with clear and not squinted memories will recall how violence, intimidation was randomly unleashed. We now had a clear divide between love and hate, between winners and losers; it was a clear declaration of a war to its own people by its own people.

Until today, some of these individuals cannot be held accountable for their wanton abuse of power. This then was the commencement of our current fiasco. This era was an endorsement to lawlessness thereby relegating the rule of law with the law of the wild. The land allocation, meant to emancipate the masses proved to be a total appendage elevating the sacred minority.

By then, the resources were now free for all, as long as you proved to be more equal than others; one was safeguarded by allegiance at the winners’ throne. Consequently, we had created a new clique of immune slave drivers, who had the tenacity to perform even the most heinous acts because they were guarantee of pardon even before trial. From within this group, we had off shoots of money dealers, lenders and black market sages.

My argument is these current top earners are exactly an extension of unresolved law breakers that were left to roam, run and ruin our economic drivers. For long these doomsayers have been set loose to abuse and gather wealth at the expense of everyone.

Over time, they institutionalised their modus operandi and made it an accepted system. The tracking system was found too old, lenient or just too busy to notice, until we became a rascal state. Some of these lawbreakers are being rewarded handsomely by the very system they sought to annihilate. Without noticing them, they infiltrated the system in the midst of the chaos they helped to craft.

If only our laws had been tight on these culprits, there is little doubt that these current top earners will have been nipped in the bud. Our current entrepreneurs have studied the system so much they now know when and how to evade and disobey it. Their disobedience is so brazen that we now have almost half of the police force operating a mafia-like form of business in the taxi industry.

It is no surprise that when we fought for sameness, some wanted to be more equal. Now we have the results.