In progressive countries, when a president or prime minister publicly reveals that members of his cabinet are corrupt, heads roll.
The Standard Editorial
A cabinet reshuffle is done along with a massive cleaning exercise to weed out those who may have aided or abetted the corrupt officials. Law enforcement organs are jolted into action to bring to justice the accused. Unfortunately, this can only happen elsewhere, and not in Zimbabwe.
Here we are growing accustomed to seeing officials accused of national plunder walking free, heads high and without any fear of reprisals. We are getting used to hearing President Robert Mugabe accusing government officials of corruption, but doing nothing about it.
After making a climbdown on ex ZMDC chairman Godwills Masimirembwa, whom he had earlier erroneously accused of asking for a US$6 million bribe, Mugabe made fresh accusations on Friday that a minister and a member of parliament collectively demanded a US$120 000 bribe from a prospective investor.
He did not give names this time but, like before, he spewed venom, threatening that stern action — including jail — would be taken against the offenders.
Even though Mugabe spoke at length about the need to rid society of rotten apples in the police force and at diamond mining firms, we doubt his sincerity because of what we have seen in the past. Many glaring multi-million dollar corruption cases have not been pursued, purportedly due to lack of evidence.
But then, over the years, Mugabe has turned a blind eye to the diamond looting in Marange despite evidence having been presented to him indicating his surbodinates were the culprits.
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In 2012, Mugabe failed to act against ministers whom he personally accused of trying to extort US$10 million from ANC-connected businesspeople, keen to invest US$1 billion in diamond mining. Former South African President Thabo Mbeki provided him with the damning evidence but he allowed the matter to die a natural death.
Based on past experiences, there is no basis for optimism that Mugabe will act out of the ordinary. Zimbabweans are justified to take his fury and rhetoric about “Sharia law” and “dragging officials with their ties to jail” as nothing more than empty talk.
