Zimbabwe: The Need to Fight Corruption

Published on 27th June 2014

Corruption is worse than prostitution. The latter might endanger the morals of an individual; the former invariably endangers the morals of the entire country (Karl Kraus). I wonder what it would be like if people could simply do business without the need to bribe someone to get a simple trading licence. Our nation is bleeding; the wounds of corruption are everywhere. Who shall heal our land?

Thousands of people die every year on bad roads whose maintenance has been budgeted for – and for years. Bread winners die in unroadworthy public vehicles that pass the fitness tests with ease simply because the fleet owner had a few bucks to spend on the inspectors whose signatures give value to worthless, old, battered buses.

Criminals, rapists and murderers are roaming the streets freely because they had enough money to pay the police officer who was investigating the case.  A man with a dollar has the power to turn the tables upside down without caring for the bowls of food thereon that the poor are feeding from.  Who shall save us from this force that has destroyed our nation? When corruption takes its toll on a nation, everything therein feels the heat. Forests are deforested, minerals are looted, water sources are silted, and animals are killed. Everyone and everything suffers.

Who shall police the police? Who shall judge the judges? Who shall shepherd the pastors?  Who shall pledge his voice and speak on behalf of the voiceless? Who shall fight for the weak and who shall stand for them? Who shall serve the interests of the poor masses who are made to pay to get a passport to travel abroad in search of basic needs that should have been available at their doorsteps? In my nation; the poor are getting poorer and the rich getting richer. The little they have is forcibly taken away from them by the ones who already have more than enough. In our world the masses have to pay for that which normally would have been a public service.

There is nothing wrong with our country; if anything is wrong then it must be you or me. One of us is guilty as sin of this thing called corruption. The problem with corruption is that it doesn’t start big. Corruption starts small but its consequences are huge. It is more like fungal growth in a plant, everything seems well on the outside until one day becomes one day. The bad roads, collapsed parastatals, bad service in the public sector and all the inefficiency around us did not start big. It was just a small match stick that ended up burning acres of forests.

There is nothing wrong with Zimbabwe; we have the power to stop the rot. If we all say “NO” to corruption, Zimbabwe will be a better place. We want our children to walk freely, to speak freely and to access the resources of their motherland without having to bear the burden of being taxed by some selfish, self-enriching public official.  Zimbabwe is for every Zimbabwean of any race, any tribe; any religion. Zimbabwe is for us, it is for you and me. We have the responsibility to preserve it in its purest form; to make it a better place to live in.

 We all have the duty to police each other and make sure that corruption is rooted out. It must be rooted out of our schools, out of public offices, private sector, and the police stations and from roadblocks, from the border posts and from our colleges and universities. Saying a big ‘NO’ will go a long way in starving the serpent that has sucked blood from our youths and has killed the dreams of young innovators.

By Lloyd Muponda
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