By Dr Masimba Mavaza | The opposition has been trying to build a mountain out of the Aljazeera’s much trumpted documentary. Before its publication the documentary was hailed as a smoking gun allegedly to expose Zanu PF and its leaders as engaged in gang crime looting and money laundering.
The opposition is making calls for the President to comment on this documentary. It is not for them to tell the President when to comment. If the documentary is revealing the truth then the culprits will face the music. It is therefore foolish for the opposition to demand an official government response.
The documentary turned out to be worse than a dumb squib. In fact it turned out to be a pathetic and sorry attempt at election campaigning by and on behalf of CCC and some detractors. Zimbabwe is under attack.
It is not the first time Aljazeera coming up with a documentary to a country just towards elections,this shows that there is an intention a well calculated one to control the outcome of the elections. It tried the same tactic in Namibia but failed to remove the revolutionary party. It then means those who are sponsoring Aljazeera have ulterior motives. They have a regime change agenda.
The second segment dubbed Gold Mafia Part 2 became a loud sounding nothing. It highlighted jilted lovers moaning for the lost love and bitter former employees trying to settle a score. Nothing was said or shown about Zimbabwean government except nefarious acts of one Cleopas Chidodo and a little known Aleck Yasini.
To the disappointment of the detractors part 3 focused on South African Bank’s corruption. While the stinking corrupt financial institution’s cup was dropped at the South African bank South Africans did not blame ANC a sharp contrast with Zimbabweans who just make noise for the sake of noise.
We are reliably informed that part 3 will be concentrating on Dubai and those who were hoping to have Zimbabwe embarrassed are now left with egg shells in their faces.
The documentary is its own critic. Its contents demolishes any semblence of credibility in the sad piece of work.
“The whole hullabaloo about illicit gold is plain codswallop and balderdash “to quote from Ambassador Christopher Mutsvangwa. “The country‘s detractors coalesced around George Soros and his Open Society Institute of Southern Africa are clearly miffed and terribly disappointed that Zimbabwe has reverted to and resurrected gold as the reference anchor of the United States Dollar.”
For years, hyperinflation has been the bane and bugbear of the besieged Zimbabwe economy. The Ango-Saxon world and its European kith and kin launched a concerted economic attack. The goal being to force Zimbabwe to its heel so it could cry ‘Uncle‘. The fiat US dollar as the infant global currency of new baby America was deployed to mercilessly decimate the Zimdollar fiat money inherited from colonial Rhodesia. The desperate currency scenario called for creative innovation.” Cde Mutsvangwa added.
We should however appreciate that in politics every country has its own scandals.
With nearly 43 years of Zimbabwean history post independence accounted for, it’s perhaps no surprise that the nation’s political life has had its good and bad moments. Political scandals have dogged Harare from the beginning, and continue to this day — a fact of which the nation was reminded by the Aljazeera document.
It’s too soon to conclude where the Gold Mafia report and surrounding saga will fit in the history of Zimbabwean political scandal, but other moments have firmly solidified their places in that past. Zimbabwe navigated through embarrassing scandals. The Willowgate and the Warvet war compensation. In all these serving ministers were involved and many were fired some resigned and we lost some who died in the process. But we soldiered on. This Gold Mafia does not implicate any serving member and the fact that there was a mention of the President does not implicate him.
Corruption is a cancer and we all know Mnangagwa’s stand against corruption. In his first term a lot of ministers some very close to him have been arrested for abuse of office. Mnangagwa has always acted fast in dealing with corruption and that is his primary concern. It is therefore strange that the opposition tries to use the Gold Mafia documentary to tarnish the image of the president and the party.
In America now almost coinciding with the 20th anniversary of the impeachment proceedings of President Bill Clinton, who was almost brought down Monica Lewinsky. This led to the second impeachment trial in America’s history.
America has a history of corruption back dating from the creation. What happened: During the French Revolution, American President John Adams sent a delegation to Paris to work out some issues after the French started searching U.S. ships that were en route to England. But the three French diplomats involved wouldn’t negotiate unless they were bribed. The U.S. officials refused and returned home. Amid questions over the perceived lack of progress, Adams made the meeting notes public, and the American people were outraged by the behavior of the French representatives — who showed up as X, Y and Z on redacted documents. This led to an undeclared, two-year naval war known as the Quasi War. A private citizen, Philadelphia doctor George Logan, took it upon himself to engage in private negotiations with French leaders, suggesting to them ways they could counter his government’s position. This led America to create the law to stop citizens to engage foreign entities.up to this day it is called the Logan law.
This shows us the two corrupt countries in the middle of the sea. So corruption did not start today. Americans again must remember the Eaton Affair
Though very much of its time, the Eaton Affair shows how seemingly minor personal matters can have major political implications amidst the volatile blend of politics and society in the nation’s capital.
There have been many Presidents who have been linked with sexual scandal in America Clinton, JFK, Warren G. Harding to name but a few. Whilst Clinton’s nearly cost him his time in office, there is one scandal that nearly prevented a President’s time in office completely.
Described as ‘the most despicable sex scandal in American political history’, the acts of President Grover Cleveland stand shamefully above those of any of his fellow Presidents. So there is nothing in the Aljazeera document which points to the president. Our President remains on high moral ground than his world counterparts.
We have realised that there are People in the media sector and in government who are selling the administration to the highest bidder, using their journalistic power or government power to exploit bad positions to make a lot of money,They are not interested in the national interest; they are interested in their self-interest.
Five years ago,corruption was seen as the necessary price of doing business and something so deeply ingrained that exposing and fighting it was regarded as futile and even harmful.We live in a different world now which was introduced by the new dispensation citizens, media and politicians across all regions actively condemn abuses of power and corruption. Such attitude change is partly due to exposure to past scandals and their consequences and the commitment of president Mnangagwa in fighting corruption. He instigated the exposure of the biggest corruption scandals over the last 25 years that inspired widespread public condemnation, and put ZAAC to action and sent people to prison. The Aljazeera scandals involve individuals across political parties and from the highest reaches of mining sector staggering amounts of bribes and money laundering of epic proportions.
In the wake of many of these scandals, our government will be committed to or will implement anti-corruption reforms, counted and, in some cases, recover losses.
While much progress has been made to improve accountability, raise awareness about how corruption happens and change norms and perceptions, we still have a long way to go to learn from these scandals and fight corruption effectively.
ZANU PF and Zimbabwe do not frown at this Aljazeera documentary but get some lessons to be learnt. While corrupt activities profited, the corrupt the affected countries pay the costs of overpriced necessities such as roads and power plants and massive loss of revenue. Zimbabwe will survive this scandal with its reputation intact and in many regards, the scandal will soon be somewhat relegated to the history books.