The die is cast on corruption Cde Jason Machaya

Stephen Mpofu
THE die is cast against corruption in public places and any vacillation by whistle blowers, the police or courts in weeding out those wriggling under obscurity of the institutions in point can only result in our beloved country suffering the ignominy of other nations in the global village.

It is in light of the seriousness of the case against those holding down important jobs in public institutions — but failing to live up to our society’s expectations — that the jailing this week of former Midlands Provincial Affairs Minister Jason Machaya and Midlands Provincial Planning Officer Chaisayanyerwa Chibururu on charges of criminal abuse of office by a Gweru magistrates court will no doubt be applauded by many who live above board, but perhaps scoffed at by those who politically sponsored them for the jobs they later messed up.

Machaya and Chibururu were convicted by a Gwanda provincial magistrate, Ms Charity Maphosa, sitting at the Gweru magistrates court, for allocating 17 799 stands to land developers who in turn gave the pair 1 000 stands worth US$900 000.

Machaya appeared in court in khaki prison garb and in leg irons, the leg shackles a poignant statement about the repugnance with which the law views corruption by people who ought to know better the responsibilities that resonate with public office.

Council operatives in Harare, Gweru, Gokwe and lately in Bulawayo have recently come under serious scrutiny for alleged abuse of office, particularly in the allocation of residential stands, with the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission officers zeroing in on Bulawayo City Council managers and the Mayor Councillor Solomon Mguni as they probe alleged corruption in the sale of stands as well as in procurement processes.

The Government of President Emmerson Mnangagwa recently loosed Zacc on a no-holds-barred crusade to flush out corrupt officers in public places in order for the law of the land to take its course, with the private sector expected to follow suit as a way of cleansing our society of greedy and unpatriotic workers feasting on what does not belong to them at the work place.

The blitzkriegs could not have come at a better time in the history of our nation than now, on the eve of devolution — the deputisation of central government power to rural or provincial councils — as any corrupt practices creeping into the promoted local government structures is wont to draw rural populations further back in their development.

People who engage in corruption and in that way abuse the trust invested in them by those who promoted them should be seen as saboteurs par excellence since they give the impression that they do not care what happens to the institutions employing them as long as they will get away with the fruits of their corruption even if the public or private sector employing them collapses as a result of the pillages suffered.

One might even pin a label of political saboteur if the corrupt employee in question belongs to an opposition political party rearing to get into power at all costs.

Besides, corruption viewed as a sinful act, amounts to a limiting force, as does laziness, in the way a person, an organisation or country can advance itself in all aspects of national development.

It therefore goes without saying that the public should rally their support in dismantling any and all corrupt practices in our country as roadblocks to the government’s vision 2030 and far beyond.

Moreover, no foreign country will bring its much needed investment to a country where greedy people wait to gobble it all up in order to swell their bellies while the generality of the population suffers want for lack of capital investment to grow their economy.

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