Stembile Mpofu
In 2017 and 2018 my life straddled two great African countries, Zimbabwe and Liberia. I now consider myself a child of both and also of all the African countries that lie between the two. It was a privilege being attached to both Liberia and Zimbabwe at this time in both their histories. When Zimbabwe’s former President stepped down my Liberian sisters and brothers cried and celebrated with me as tears of joy made my body weak with relief that my country Zimbabwe was free to move peacefully into a new space. At the time there was uncertainty within Liberia because the issue of the election run-off between Joseph Boakai and George Weah had not yet been resolved. Two months later from faraway Zimbabwe, it was my turn to celebrate with my Liberian family as they inaugurated their new President George Weah. Their joy, pride and relief for the peaceful transition from one leader to the next was more profound than mine because for Liberians the memories of the war are still palpable.
After the euphoria of crossing turbulent waters ebbed away and the time to begin the real work of governing started, the inevitable expectations began to be voiced by Liberians and Zimbabweans, “We hope that these leaders will be different and bring about a new dispensation. These leaders must stop corruption. The only way we can move forward is if our leaders get rid of corrupt ministers and have zero tolerance for corruption.” Newspaper headlines proclaimed their position on zero tolerance for corruption. NGO leaders issued press statements warning those in power that they were watching. Public servants in their run-down offices spoke among themselves sharing their hopes for a better country, their hopes that things would improve. The market women and vendors knew that their new leaders were going to change things for the better.
After some weeks, it was evident that there was not going to be a miraculous change. Not much was happening and the stories of corrupt deals being negotiated and government overspending began to trickle into the ears of the people of Zimbabwe and Liberia. The inevitable disillusionment began to set in and the age-old mantra took its place again at the top of the charts…. Africa’s leaders are corrupt, they are heartless and if Africa is to develop, it’s the leaders that must first change. The articles were published again and again. The song was being sung and the mantra applauded when someone declared it.
The citizens took hold of the betrayal by their leaders and owned it with the same fervent intensity that they had done in previous decades. “They have betrayed us again as these leaders always do!”
But wait. Did anyone stop to ask where these leaders come from? Did they not go to the same schools we did, play in the same streets, suckle from the same mothers we did and receive guidance from the same fathers? Before they became our political leaders where were they? Were they not our friends, our teachers, our doctors, our bosses and our subordinates? And when they were there with us how did we behave when we interacted with them and how did they behave when they interacted with us. Did they not behave just like us; did we not behave like each other? Before we (them and us) cooked the accounts and pocketed the company or donor money, what did we (them and us) say to each other? How many contracts did we (them and us) block till we could negotiate a little something for ourselves to finish that house we each were building while we (them and us) sat in that back office in the government building?
For Zimbabweans the journey from November 17th to July 30th has been an instructive one in as far as revealing that the disease that is corruption does not only afflict our political leaders. It is a disease running rampant in all spheres of the Zimbabwean society. There is a need to own this fact so as to ensure that our expectations for the future of our country include expectations of ourselves. A short perusal of local newspaper stories looking at just the three months of April to June will show that contrary to the prevailing narrative, that the Zanu PF government is responsible for the majority of Zimbabwe’s corruption, corruption afflicts all spheres of the nation.
We witnessed the controversial primary elections of both the MDC Alliance and Zanu PF. Each was characterised with incidents of vote buying and bribery. Webster Shamu, an aspiring Zanu PF candidate for Chegutu was caught with ballot papers in his vehicle, he was allegedly attempting to rig the primary election in his own favour. MDC member Jessie Majome cried foul at the lack of transparency that characterised the Harare West Primary election. This led to her withdrawal from the race as an MDC candidate and her contesting the national race as an Independent. These incidents were not isolated because similar reports emerged from both Zanu PF and MDC Alliance primary elections being held all over the country.
Outside the political sphere we witnessed the unilateral withdrawal of USAID funding from three prominent Civil Society democracy and governance watchdogs on allegations of gross mismanagement of funds. The three organisations, namely Counseling Services Unit, Election Resource Centre and Zimrights expressed shock and disbelief at the action of the US government agency and professed their innocence in the face of allegations of misappropriating, diverting and misusing funds. This incident was a reminder of similar allegations that rocked the NGO sector after the 2013 elections, where a conflict between the board and management of Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, brought to the fore misuse of millions of dollars worth of USAID funds.
Other institutions had their own stories of individuals committing corrupt acts in efforts to enrich themselves. In May, five police officers based at Avondale Police station were taken before the courts facing 287 counts of criminal abuse of office. They had prejudiced their employer of $ 5 720.00 by using fake ticket books to fine motorists. In the same month, Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA) foiled an attempt by one of its system Administrator’s to defraud the institution of 2.3 million dollars. In June Another ZIMRA official was in court for generating a fake vehicle permit designed to assist a “client” to retrieve his impounded car from the police.
Corruption at Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) was not only visible at the highest level, where we saw Former Energy Minister Undenge being prosecuted for graft related to ZESA. A Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC) employee also appeared in court in May for illegally connecting 11 Chitungwiza households to the main electricity supply. The connections bypassed the meter system thus prejudicing the company of revenue.
Wholesaler N.Richards was prejudiced of over $83 000.00 worth of goods after a customer and security guard connived to steal goods from the shop without paying for them. The two appeared in court in April being charged with fraud. There was even an attempt by a Former Chitungwiza Municipality Chamber Secretary to bribe a High Court Judge Felistus Chatukuta with an undisclosed amount of money. She appeared in court in May.
The list of cases of corruption within three short months is long. The cases highlighted here constitute less than half of those that appeared in newspapers. The cost and negative effect of these crimes on the quality of each Zimbabwean’s life is huge. It causes the cost of living to skyrocket and service delivery to deteriorate because everyone must ends up paying the cost for revenue lost in one way or another.
We are captivated by the high profile cases and their effects and fail to acknowledge the effects of the hundreds of incidents taking place everyday within institutions at every level of society. These are acts being committed daily by us the citizens with the cumulative effect of hindering our own country’s development. The council parking attendants conniving to steal parking fees from the city councils, doctors denying patients access to medical treatment so they can make a little extra money by referring them to a friend’s surgery, journalists ‘exposing’ corruption while slipping brown envelopes into their back pockets from politicians seeking favourable articles from them, NGO leaders protesting against corruption at press conferences and in press statements while expropriating donor funds, politicians hurling accusations of corrupt behaviour at each other while embezzling government and party funds themselves. Teachers, bankers, businessmen and women and public servants all committing acts of corruption in their own spheres with the net effect of corroding the national economy and services. Yet they all harbor the expectation that the country’s future will only improve if the country’s leaders are to change.
The question is, on seeing this endemic corruption and accepting that this a reflection of the state of our nation, on what rationale do we base our expectation that African leaders will change? Why do we expect our leaders to behave differently when they acquire political power? The leaders are a mere reflection of us the citizens and our daily actions and interactions, because they are of us and from us and are doing the exact same thing in their space that we have been doing in ours.
I say to Zimbabweans, while we harbor the expectation of our leaders to create a society where corruption is shunned, we must also harbor the same expectation of ourselves. Our leaders are a mere reflection of who we are. They have not betrayed us, they are only continuing to do what they did with us before they came into political leadership. Let us challenge ourselves to clean up our individual spaces and increase our own moral authority and integrity and then demand better from our political leaders. Only when WE take responsibility for our own change should we harbor any expectation of change in our leaders and a better future for our countries.
Africa’s leaders will only change when African people change, because they are us.
