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Stephen Mpofu, Perspective
IN a no-holds-barred editorial comment in these columns three days ago, Chronicle came out guns blazing against corrupt officers in the Department of Lands in the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural

Resettlement for demanding kickbacks from Zimbabweans in the diaspora desperately seeking allocation of land back home to boost the country’s economic growth.

This columnist cannot but add weight to calls by this paper for remedial action to be taken by the powers-that-be to de-escalate what can best be described as economic immolation by greedy officers in the ministry in point.

It is officially stated Government has reviewed the policy on allocation of vacant land and restructured the provincial and district lands committees to curb  rampant corruption.

However, no mention is made of what punitive legal action or actions have been taken against the alleged offenders, or how many of them were involved, which leads one to speculate, rightly or wrongly, that the culprits got away scot-free to freely munch spoils in their bank accounts from innocent diasporans — something that does not at all deter potential offenders.

But where was the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) when all the reported rot was going on in the Government’s own house?

Better still, where was the ministry’s leadership in question when all the reported rot was taking place? Or were their junior officers party to the corruption or did they have their lips sealed with part of the payments in the scam or were they completely outclassed by the crafty players handling requests for land from innocent Zimbabweans abroad keen to invest on and act as fillips for national development?

That such open, blatant corruption should take place while our indefatigable President, Cde Emmerson Mnangagwa, and his Second Republic Government spend sleepless nights planning and then going out in full force to implement policies intended to woo foreign investors to give our nation a better new lease of life against illegal Western sanctions and Covid-19, must surely persuade every patriot to rally their support to the Government and regard corrupt employees as saboteurs who should be given no room to manoeuvre.

In the subject in point in this discourse, the ministry responsible for lands might wish to tell the public not only what measures it took to prevent further corruption, but also how many of those alleged involved in extorting money from diasporans for land are behind bars, to demonstrate our legal system’s no-nonsense muscle, or have been kicked out of their jobs for their part in the reported scam.

Surely, every reasonable Zimbabwean must realise that any reports of or about corruption deter potential foreign investors that our country needs to further help development in the mining and agricultural industries, both of which are strong boosters of national economic development and social spin-off’s.

At the same time, however, such reports are the kind of fire power that Zimbabwe’s enemies abroad dearly love to intensify sanctions of all sorts in hopes of causing people to rise against  the Government and in that way effect regime change.

The future of our country is in every individual’s hand to hold tightly or cast into the dustbin of history.