zwnews.com Political Reporter
The recent outbursts by Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe that no one in his party can dare accuse the other of corruption and fanning division has left everyone wondering whether ZANU-Pf can still lead the country.
Mugabe recently chided his party lieutenants who have spoken well of the ills that has bedeviled not only his party but the government he presides over, with issues of alleged corruption taking prominence.
In his party, it a crime to expose or talk of bigwigs being corrupt, he even lambasted the media for saying there was corruption among his lieutenants, saying that was the vocabulary of his enemies.
His double standards were there for everyone to see, in his birthday interview when he turned 93, Mugabe said he wouldn’t be happy if history were to judge him for presiding over a corrupt cabinet, but in that very same interview, he defended his corrupt lieutenants, saying anyone accusing them should bring evidence.
Over the years opposition politicians, political writers and citizens has accused the Mugabe led regime of bringing the country’s economy down to its knees. That criticism has always been met with fervid disparagement from the ruling ZANU-PF party.
Most recent, while addressing his party’s highest meetings, he said his party was of integrity and should not be soiled. “ZANU PF is a dignified party, you cannot wash your dirty linen in public,” he charged. While this was centre on factionalism, the issue of graft also came to the fore, as some of the accusations involves graft.
According to political analyst and social commentator, Maynard Manyowa in defending Kasukuwere who is also being fingered in corruption, it is one way to show that Mugabe can entertain corruption in his party and government.
Manyowa says when Mugabe wants to protect a cadre, no matter how corrupt and evil, he will do so.
“Another member of the ‘young turks’ Professor Jonathan Moyo, the alleged brains behind Grace Mugabe’s ascendency, faces the daunting prospects of serious jail time after the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission investigated him for fraud and found evidence.
“He escaped thanks to Mugabe’s intervention which blocked his prosecution, and the anti-graft body was moved from ministry of Justice to The Office of the President,” wrote Manyowa in the Daily Maverick, a non-partisan centre for political analysis, investigative journalism, and social commentary publication.
In Zimbabwe corruption has been institutionalised to the extent that even the police who are mandated to uphold the law, are seen competing for honours in the corruption league table, and individuals connected to the political gurus have been using that to fatten their purses at the expense of the general citizenry.
