OUR worst fears have been confirmed that Prosecutor-General (PG) Kumbirai Hodzi would land himself into trouble for confirming the mechanics behind the rot that is destroying this country’s economy after he told us that cartels involved in graft cases had virtually captured the State.
NewsDay Comment
Some unintelligible dimwit, who is an executive member of some obscure outfit calling itself the Zimbabwe Congress of Students Unions (Zicosu), has decided to be the first to throw stones at the PG for alerting us as to why not even a single significant individual has been jailed for graft, given all the efforts President Emmerson Mnangagwa is said to be putting to fight corruption. Serve for the few cases such as that involving former minister Priscah Mupfumira – which are nothing to write home about given the magnitude of corruption in the country, there has not been any successful earth-shattering arrests, prosecutions and jailing of people said to be the corruption kingpins. All we have seen and heard are dreary statements from the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission telling us that they are still busy investigating.
And when the PG decided to tell us what exactly was taking place behind the scenes regarding the war on corruption, some small grey-mattered nincompoop then finds energy to attack the PG.
If we read Hodzi well, he specifically said: “The cartels (involved in corruption) are well-organised, they are organised in the sense that their organisation is deliberate and meant to frustrate the discovery of their corruption. They make sure they are not discovered and frustrate the prosecution and the work of law agents. The nature of the cartels cuts across all the institutions, media, legal profession, judiciary, National Prosecuting Authority and all other institutions that are mandated to fight corruption. Even members of the public and businesspeople, they are also involved in these cartels.”
Hodzi can be likened to a doctor who diagnoses the nature of a serious ailment afflicting some patient, but the relative of the patient shouts at that doctor that he was a failure.
“Honourable sir, your admittance that truly cartels exist, that corruption is sinking the economy is a clear sign that in your capacity as the PG you have failed… we found it disturbing to hear that you alleged lack of co-ordination as a reason why corruption is growing yet the Constitution of Zimbabwe section 260(11) gives you the power to deal with these issues,” Zicosu executive Eden Mandava crowed.
Mandava seems to be completely lost to the fact that the corruption war in Zimbabwe cannot be won by a single person or institution. It requires the efforts of many people and all those institutions Hodzi cited as being now compromised. The PG and his office are not the alpha and omega in the fight against corruption, but is a mere player whose contributions are meaningless if the other players are compromised and not playing ball. Even Mandava himself is called to arms when it comes to the fight against corruption.
It is quite evident that Mandava is just being used by the very cartels that the PG is talking about. We saw absolutely nothing amiss in Hodzi’s apt summation of the complexities of the fight against corruption. Mnangagwa should be wary of lapdogs like Mandava who appear to be on his side, yet they are part of a clique of people who are busy destroying him and his government. It’s best for Mandava to just shut the hell up if he has nothing meaningful to say.
