By Dr Masimba Mavaza | The last few days were very dramatic and seriously revealing. The nation was entertained to the saga surrounding the Draxgate featuring a business man Mr Delish Nguwaya and the other side presenting the minister of health.
The issues surrounding the noise was the contract awarded to Nguwaya the representative of Drax international. The short of it all is that Nguwaya was given a contract to provide Corona Virus equipment. The drama reached crescendo with the arrest of Nguwaya and some managers at Natpharm crowned by the arrest of the minister of health.
One wonders if it was necessary to arrest the team during the COVID 19 fight. The arrest of the minister at this time was confusing and seriously counter productive. We understand the need to fight corruption.
Corruption undermines security, prosperity, democracy and confidence in public institutions. Left unchecked, it can have devastating effects on citizens’ quality of life at home and overseas. These effects, including poverty and inequality, hit the most vulnerable people hardest. ZACC which is our leading anti-corruption organisation last week launched an unprecedented attack on the commanders in the fight against COVID 19.
However in this fight against corruption, we must not lose sight of the fact that there are many other fights out there. The key fight is a political fight. Let us not be so excitable in our purported fight against corruption so as to end up shooting ourselves in the foot.
The corrupt must be arrested and prosecuted but if we are going to make allegations especially the ones that involves the name of the President either directly or by association, let’s make sure we are able to substantiate our assertions.
The name of the President must be protected by both ZANU PF members and the nation at large, because the image of the President is the image of the Party and the country.
We must all understand that our Zimbabwean electoral system is a winner take all, if the name of our President is soiled and he ends up not winning the next elections then the whole Party has lost. The opposition knows this thats why they are quick to associate any bad act to the name of the President.
ZANU PF must be vigilant and not fall in this trap as we purportedly quest to fight corruption. The events of last week are embarrassing and showed that ZACC is now settling on the premises of arresting to investigate.
ZACC is becoming an unguided missile and it is destined to destroy the government the party and the nation. Firstly there is no reason whatsoever to detain a suspect especially if he is not a flight risk. This arrests are meant to embarrass and humiliate the targeted ministers. In this case the minister of health who is in the frontline of the COVID 19 had to use his calling in supplying what was needed in the war. These were times of emergency and one had to deal with what was available. Did he benefit from this deal now? Not at all. In fact when Obadiah Moyo discovered that the deal was expensive, he ordered it to be cancelled.
The minister managed to keep the COVID deaths at 4 which no other country had managed. The number rose to five the day the commander was removed from his post by the arrest which was celebrated by Jonathan Moyo before it was even done. As if the CORONA was watching, the infected numbers sky rocketed in disapproval of the unjustified arrests. There was no urgency in doing so. This could have waited until the COVID war was under control.
One wonders if the arrests were calculated to drive the president to perform dismally in the war against COVID. Now Zimbabwe is on auto pilot because of overzealousness of the Commission.
Now we ask why was the arrest of the minister on twitter before he was arrested. It means ZACC is infected with a lot of informers. Professor Jonathan Moyo has become the spokesperson of ZACC. How does he always know what is being planned in privacy. Who is the mole. Does Jonathan Moyo still control ZACC the police and the CIO.
As domestic constitutional issues paralyse politics, its message could not come at a more important time. From undue influence and conflicts of interest, to opaque public contracts and dirty money in our economy, corruption in ZIMBABWE is real. There is an urgent need to address it through public policy and leadership. BUT we must never rush to arrest.
The failures by ZACC to convict is caused by the fact that they have the speed to please but not to ease. The speed to arrest with no clue on conviction.
Arrests must never be emotionally persuaded. Men who think through emotions only create smoke and emotionally no fire.
The Zimbabwe’s standing in the world, our ability to play a leadership role in global politics and the efficacy of our overseas aid spending depends on taking corruption seriously. Tackling corruption in Zimbabwe and the role the Country plays in corruption eradication meanwhile, is essential to rebuild faith in politics, promote integrity in business and build trusted institutions at home. But the emotions displayed by ZACC and its zeal to rush to the press is self defeating and self serving. The Nation has made important strides in recent years, subjecting many to life style audit.
However, the absence of any mention of key convictions is a cause for real concern.
For too long our property market has been used by political leaders, some of whom are from aid-receiving countries, to launder corrupt and stolen assets. Providing a safe haven for corrupt assets undermines the Country’s zero tolerance to corruption and leaves us open to accusations of hypocrisy.
Our Anti-Corruption Group is a coalition of Zimbabweans who have witnessed first-hand the devastating effects that corruption has on society and those who have caused.
We must have all political parties to join the fight against corruption by committing to taking concrete action in the following areas:
Ending the Political role as a safe haven for dirty money by introducing the register of who owns property in the country. Life style checks should be introduced at the same time we need to apply reason.
There must be an economic crime plan with sufficient resources for police and prosecutors fighting corruption in Zimbabwe. Fighting corruption must be differentiated from targeting few unwanted ministers.
Cleaning up Zimbabwean politics and getting a grip on conflicts of interest by giving ZACC and National Prosecuting Authority a proper enforcement powers.
Making sure large Chinese companies and any foreign company are held to account for economic crimes such as money laundering and fraud to help end corporate wrong-doing. ZAAC must be involved in Driving transparency in the natural resource sector by improving company reporting requirements in Zimbabwe.
Promoting an ambitious agenda for transparency around public decision-making in Zimbabwe through greater freedom of information and open access to public contracts and court data.
Establishing first-class fair and transparent procurement processes, which ensure that all contracts are made public, and that corrupt bidders are refused public contracts.
Developing the base of evidence by improving our understanding of corruption in the country. Government must lead the way in the fight against corruption by sharing best practice and enshrining anti-corruption and transparency provisions in all future public contracts and trade deals.
Much of what we are asking for has been recognised within government as vital steps to maintaining Zimbabwe’s reputation for fair play, security and prosperity. But Zimbabwe cannot afford to lose momentum on getting its own house in order. It must not be put into action by the opposition journalists. The public outcry must no be the reason to reason.
We must encourage all political parties to commit to fighting corruption so that Zimbabwe will command respect on the global stage. Zimbabwe must have policies that tackle the underlying cause of poverty, of which corruption is a significant part.
The actions of ZACC in the Obadiah saga is embarrassing. Zimbabwe has no guidelines on how a minister should control a panicking world.
Obadiah was dealing with an international pandemic. This was a new virus there was no company on earth which was prepared for this. No company on earth had experience in producing the PPes. So his decision should not have been taken as abuse of office.
ZACC should not become supervisors of ministries. In this pandemic ZACC was supposed to institute a commission of enquiry.
The precedence set here is that no minister must take action in the times of national crisis. ZACC has simply taken away the discretionary powers of the ministries. This was a time which needed more support not more vilifying.
The treatment of Obadiah Moyo was a stab in the back. Ministers should be allowed to use their free will in times of emergency. We are in the middle of a pandemic. Seeing how other countries have suffered under the pandemic Zimbabwe has done better.
The problem we are having here is that Nguwaya sold his things at a higher price. In the absence of price control Nguwaya has no case to answer. Obadiah Moyo and tge Natoharm managers were arrested because the opposition and Jonathan Moyo caused an outcry. Would this be a proper reason. No. We can not continue this wAy. This is obscene and pervasive.
The detractors tried to link the whole saga to the first family. This shows the motive in the whole saga.
The important question one must ask is why is this case played in the media. Who gave blow by blow information of all meetings and information which was clearly internal. What does this teach other ministers to be innovative. What trust has been built between the perm sec and his or her minister.
The whole war against COVID has been eroded by social media. Since when did the country react to Social Media.
A lot has to be done. Our nation is at the crossroads.
Vazet2000&yahoo.co.uk