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Prince Sunduzani, Business Reporter
THE youth have been called upon to play a more active role in fighting corruption and taking up available economic opportunities to steer development in the country.

Speaking at a public dialogue organised by Yield and the Bulawayo Youth Integrity Network (BYIN) last Friday under the theme “Leveraging the youth demographic dividend in the fight against corruption and illicit financial flows”, Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) public education officer, Mr Reverend Magowa, urged the youth to shun activities that abet illicit financial dealings, such as black market money deals.

He also called on the youth to report corruption cases, as turning a blind eye will only help the “cancer” to spread.

“As the youths you should not participate in corruption. Instead you should fight it by pointing out individuals involved in corrupt activities. If we look at the population of Zimbabwe, 65 percent of them are youths. So we are saying as youths, let’s go to Harare, Gweru, Beitbridge and other places and spread awareness against corruption as it affects our future,” said Mr Magowa.

“As long as corruption is being taken as a private entity, it’s difficult to deal with it completely. As long as you have information, which leads to an act of corruption, as Zacc we are saying bring it forward to us then you and I can fight hard against corruption and we are going to benefit more on fighting than taking a silent approach on corruption.”

Responding to criticism from the youth who attended the event on the low rate of prosecutions, Mr Magowa said on the contrary, Zacc was doing a lot in fighting corruption but was not the prosecuting authority as they only investigate.

Speaking at the same event, Mr Frequency Zulu, a member of the BYIN, called on the youth to join hands and fight corruption in their surroundings. He said corruption in the country has been institutionalised and systematised, hence the need to find a way of breaking the corporate veil, which is canvassing the ill.

“We need to put our heads together to fight corruption. The issue that I will keep coming to is the issue of the corporate veil.

“We need to break through because the system of corruption put in place walls, which need to be broken through. These things are systematic and organised and we should come up with a plan to fight it. We want to support Zacc as the network,” said Mr Zulu.

Government has said it was fast-tracking the enactment of the Money Laundering Bill to add on to its corruption fighting arsenal. The bill is expected to help in plugging mineral leakages and stop externalisation of funds.

@PrinceNkosy102