editorial comment
The divorce case of Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga has gone a long way to expose the depth of moral decay that has pervaded our national leaders. It is, however, the level of impunity and belief of entitlement that comes as most shocking, killing all hope of restoring Zimbabwe’s moral fibre.
VP Chiwenga openly tells the court, in one of the flurry of court applications exchanged with his estranged wife, that he is a recipient of several luxury vehicles from state entities and conflicted individuals — a revelation that ordinarily would have called for immediate investigation.
The exposure of these curious gifts made it appear the VP found it better to admit to corruption rather than being found guilty of undercutting his wife in divorce property sharing and losing out on houses and cars.
The property claims that Chiwenga makes publicly and the counter-claims made by Marry, his estranged wife, serve to show the world the vast wealth that Zimbabwe’s leaders enjoy while the rest of the citizens wallow in poverty.
The VP and his wife are openly fighting for top-of-the-range luxury vehicles, some of them allocated solely to tour farms and to escort their children to school. They are grappling for mansions and other high-value properties whose acquisition would make a subject of interest in other jurisdictions.
But our leaders will not bat an eyelid, just as the authorities have chosen silence, and the national anti-graft unit, whose mandate would have made this property wrangle a subject of their interest, has also looked away.
The Chiwenga divorce case presents our national leaders as completely out of touch with the reality that the citizens of this country are among the poorest in the region and the continent.
- Chamisa under fire over US$120K donation
- Mavhunga puts DeMbare into Chibuku quarterfinals
- Pension funds bet on Cabora Bassa oilfields
- Councils defy govt fire tender directive
Keep Reading
The whole lot, right from the highest political office to the backbencher in Parliament, is determined to bleed this country to death — completely oblivious of the fact that it they continue on this path, there soon will be nothing to go after, but each other.
This avaricious nature of our leaders is shown too in recent disturbing information coming from Chitungwiza where an audit report has exposed shocking corruption by individuals at the helm of this graft-tainted town — driven by nothing else but shameless greed.
Some of the issues uncovered by the audit include the milking of the town by its managers, including the town clerk George Makunde, who has since been suspended.
Managers were entitled to a residential stand measuring thousands of square metres in a residential area of their choice in Harare, as well as a commercial and an industrial stand in Chitungwiza for which they would pay half the price.
The same managers would also receive top-of-the-range vehicles and have school fees paid in full for all their children and up to six children of relatives! Meanwhile, the town has become known for sewage stench, water shortage, uncollected refuse and potholes.
This is the ugly leadership culture that is destroying Zimbabwe and whether or not the government of President Emmerson Mnangagwa is going to succeed in bringing this transformation will depend on the political will and a realisation of the folly of following this disastrous path.
