Zwnews.com
The arrest of Tourism Minister Prisca Mupfumira who was implicated in the National Social Security Authority corruption where millions were lost from pension funds, has gotten Zimbabweans talking.
Mupfumira was arrested by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) recently and is in remand, as she faces charges over the looting at NSSA during her previous role as public service and labour minister.
The arrest comes after Minister of Social Welfare Sekai Nzenza, has been under fire from parliamentarians for failing to table the NSSA audit report in parliament. They queried why the reluctance, with others alleging that she could be protecting some big wigs. Rumours just filtering through allege that she too benefited from the loot proceeds.
Nzenza is reportedly on the run.
But, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information Nick Mangwana refutes the claims that Nzenza is on the run. “Having a lot of Media enquiries around the whereabouts of Hon Minister Nzenza. I have spoken to her and she assures the nation that, she is in her constituency in Chikomba East and not on the run from anything or anyone and used strong terms to dismiss the circulating rumours,” he twitted.
However, citizens are debating the minister’s arrest saying it is nothing much to write home about. They say in regimes that do not tolerate corruption, ministers should be ashamed of themselves once implicated, to the extent of resigning from public office pending investigations.
“The fact that implicated Zimbabwean ministers still find guts to report for work, shows the extent to which corruption has taken root. They are not ashamed of themselves, it is just normal for them and they do not feel any guilty conscience at all. This is just a political game,” says one Ruwa resident.
Adds that the arrest of Mupfumira therefore does not show President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s sincerity on fighting corruption, until he starts uprooting the culture of letting the guilty enjoy while the innocent suffer.
“Apart from arresting, he should make it a culture that once implicated, ministers should resign pending investigations, this would give free space for the police to carry out investigations without fear, as opposed to investigating a sitting minister,” he adds.
Tina Chacha, a Harare resident also believes in the same school of thought. She says corruption has become a cancer, that has surprisingly been cherished, and as such, the accused public officials are not bothered by being implicated.
Veteran journalist Hopewell Chin’ono agrees; “What tells you that we are in a New Dispensation is not an arrest, Kuruneri was arrested and went to jail during former president Robert Mugabe’s era. What tells you that things have changed is if the arrested Minister stepped down immediately. Don’t believe in deceptive and choreographed drama! Mugabe used to arrest ministers,” he wrote on his twitter handle.
