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Stephen Mpofu

Time seems long overdue for the Second Republic to supplant with dizzifying actions rhetorical denunciation of maggots fattening themselves on what does not belong to them so that Zimbabweans are spared the ignominy of being frowned upon collectively and globally as corrupt people.

But what combative measures should be taken to achieve desired results, you (yes, you) will ask.

It seems to this equally concerned scribe that legal and other effective means will have the sharp edge with which to blitzkrieg scum to scrap it out or reduce it so that it does not again rear up its ugly head in government and the private sector so Zimbabweans will hold their heads up high as victors over the rot which worsens our already beleaguered economy due to illegal Western sanctions imposed to punish our government for introducing land reform to reclaim vast tracts of fertile land seized from our people by white settlers in colonial Rhodesia.

Earlier this week a radio station run by blacks in a powerful, Western country and currently in a strenuous economic war against our nation, broadcast a programme on corruption in this country with its broadcasters wondering what the government was doing to reign in the culprits.

A Zimbabwean who responded to the phone-in programme informed the radio station that President Mnangagwa had directed that anyone involved in corruption should be arrested.

A loud incredulous sigh in the background rather than one of belief and relief after the phone call and some of the people within earshot of the broadcast will no doubt have concluded, correctly or otherwise, that the story about corruption in Zimbabwe was being peddled to serve as a scarecrow to investors rearing to do business in a land pulsating with strategic and other minerals in its belly and with people renowned for its warm hospitality towards foreigners.

It is indeed a tragic irony that the de-campaigning by that foreign radio station comes at a time when our government is sparing no effort with its ease-of-doing-business programme to project the country as a succulent beehive for direct foreign investors to come and feast on the honey and in the process help to grow our economy while boosting their foreign investment portfolios at the same time.

What according to this scribe the negative broadcast impels Zimbabweans to do, is for our government to pull all stops in order to eradicate cases of corruption. To make good its no-nonsense stance against corruption, the government should ensure that none of its employees as well as executives in parastatals and members of boards of directors tender their resignations on smelling the rat that they are being investigated for corruption so that they may go away scot-free to munch the loot stored away at home, in local bank accounts or blued away to foreign banks as was the case in the Panama papers story many years ago.

The very fact that the suspects put in their resignation letters when it is known to everyone that jobs are difficult to find in the country at present in light of the state of the economy, should by itself implicate the people in point as being involved in corruption.

Their resignations should be turned down until investigations clear them of any wrong doing, in which case this communicologist can bet those involved will beg their employers to allow them to continue working.

Those found guilty of corruption must be rusticated into the shade to metamorphose and then step back into the social, economic or political limelight, as the case might be, or vegetate there while things around them and their families fall apart, like deciduous tree leaves in the autumn of their lives.

But not only that. Our laws permitting and taking advantage of advances in technology, a website should be created where names and offences of convicted or confirmed corrupt workers should be immortalised so that should they seek employment when they finally gain their freedom, prospective employers can visit the website to inform themselves about the history and character of the applicant in order to protect our society and the economy.

Incidentally, Zimbabwe is not the only country tainted with corruption as in neighbouring South Africa the same problem is a big worry there with the Democratic Alliance party leadership congratulating President Cyril Ramaphosa for his re-election and pledging to support his efforts on stamping out corrupt practices that appear rampant.

It can also be said with equanimity that other African states and no doubt many others also abroad are dogged by corrupt practices but apparently choose to accord the scum a kind of mother-in-law treatment to make the outside world believe nothing is the matter there.

Back at home, the government will achieve milestones in its anti-corruption blitz if a truly sagacious anti-corruption committee is deployed to remove the weeds from the genuine crop and there is no doubt in this writer’s mind that the private sector will follow Big Brother’s footsteps to weed out any undesirable elements from its workforce.

But more than that, a no-nonsense anti-graft body should also go out and look into the expenditures of constituency development funds from parliament to ensure that every cent allocated is sunk into the projects that benefit the electorate and not sunk into the pockets and bellies of members of parliament who, by the way, should not only appear honourable in the House before the Speaker but much more so to their master, the voters who sent them to the August House.