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Stephen Mpofu, Perspective
KUDOS galore are surely due to our Government for measures being adopted to cleanse various economic structures of the increasing rot that is wont to stink in the minds of big-moneyed businesses abroad making them remain too close to their money after deciding that Zimbabwe is a no-go investment country, while back here at home inverted patriots exude beads of sweat working nicodemously to sabotage an economy already rendered more fragile by illegal Western economic sanctions.

Thus in this communicologist’s humble opinion, Government’s decision for a no-holds-barred crackdown on cyber-crimes with a Cyber-Security Bill being passed by parliament and becoming law to save financial industries millions being lost through fiscal theft and allied criminal activities by flit-fingered criminals hibernating in our society is not a single milestone in combating crimes that militate against our country’s economic revival and growth.

Governments are vowed resolve to intensify its anti-corruption blitz in local authorities which, as anyone should know, must now be fully prepared and set to deputise central government power in what is popularly known as devolution and not be counted as road blocks in transforming rural areas in particular which the bygone colonial regime pejoratively described as “the periphery” — that description   implying that the majority black people in rural areas were virtual nonentities as far as good living standards were concerned.

The Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) as Government’s big-headed legal knobkerrie must be loosed to brutalise the heads of corrupt council officials who plunder and divert to their own use — under the cover of their positions, resources that must benefit people whom the local authorities exist to serve without let or hindrance and as a fillip for our country’s social and economic growth.

Then there is also this other, long-awaited hands-on decision to curb smuggling and with that huge losses in duty for goods that ought to be recorded at border posts when imported into our country.

A decision by the Government to acquire drones for the policing of our country’s borderlines will no doubt end the scam in point here as criminals are wont to develop cold feet and cease their illegal acts on becoming aware of the drones policing the borders from high up in the sky and therefore exposing any untoward activities across the country’s borders with neighbouring states in the North, East and South.

At present it is known that some Zimbabwean businesspeople smuggle goods from South Africa across illegal crossing points along the Limpopo River by paying bribes to security personnel on either side of the border with other people from this country also using the same illegal crossing points and a bribing their way to enter South Africa.

Meanwhile, it is all very well for environmental management authorities to complain about the veld fires causing massive destruction in many parts of the country at this time of the year and about wanton deforestation in some parts of the country and warning those responsible for the damages caused of penalties they face for the offences in question.

Yes, such warnings do serve as deterrents all right.

But surely authorities must also take cognisance of the ignorance among some of the offenders about the impact of their activities in both Zimbabwe as a whole as well as on the globe.

This therefore, calls for a need imperatively to educate the public that, in the first, veld fires destroy soil fertility and therefore, impacting negatively on food crop production while toxic gases from the fires seriously contribute to global warming by damaging the ozone layer which protects Earth from the sun’s dangerous emissions with the results of recurrent droughts that this country has also experienced and food shortages due to crop failure.

On the other hand, trees absorb and sink toxic gases that damage the ozone layer with devastating effects on humanity and wildlife.

The saying that “ignorance is no defence” should not make authorities renege on the need for them to educate the public about dangerous consequences of acts of setting wild fires and clearing forests for society as a whole, for such non-action will be tantamount to the authorities hiding behind their fingers.

But surely Zimbabweans should also know that rains do not fall in deserts so that turning Zimbabwe or parts of it into a desert risks disastrous consequences for humanity.

Meanwhile, as the Second Republic does everything in its ability given the scarce financial resources at hand but with support from friendly countries to revamp the economy, this country’s diplomatic missions abroad should organise and rally Zimbabwean diasporans to channel funding for investment back home to their motherland in the knowledge that unlike foreign investors whatever they spend on assets at home will be theirs permanently as no profit made will not be repatriated as in the case of foreign investment.

That Zimbabweans working abroad chipped in in a big way after Cyclone Idai hit Chimanimani in Manicaland province is ample demonstration that those sons and daughters of the soil possess the financial wherewithal to also intervene in the quest to take the motherland into a brave new future socially and economically.

After all,  East, West, North, South and Zimbabwe, home is best.