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Fighting corrupion Africa style
Mavis Makuni, The Financial Gazette (Zimbabwe)
February 09, 2006

http://www.fingaz.co.zw/story.aspx?stid=664

First, shoot the messenger, and then arrest one or two sacrificial lambs

FIGHTING corruption African style. First, shoot the messenger or messengers, and then arrest one or two sacrificial lambs to detract attention from the real culprits. Finally, bury your head in the sand and pretend either that the problem will go away or that the people will have been duped.

A cynical view to be sure, but one that is borne out by events that have taken place in a number of countries that have been rocked by corruption scandals in recent years. The first act in shooting the messenger is usually to go all out to muzzle the media through a slew of draconian laws or outright persecution of journalists through intimidation, harassment and arrests. In most cases these attempts to victimise journalists are futile and counter-productive as corruption becomes more rampant and ruinous in the long run.

Take the case of Zimbabwe, which now seems so inextricably engulfed in a web of official corruption that it will take a real war to root out the cancer. The government has promulgated restrictive laws such as the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) and the Public Order and Security Act (POSA) in a bid to forestall the scrutiny and questioning of the actions of government officials but this has not rendered corruption benign and consquenceless. In fact, it is now such a rampant and malignant cancer that even the government now openly acknowledges its existence and is belatedly trying to do something about it.

And yet when the first alarm bells were rung about this scourge in the 1980s, officialdom reacted in a hostile manner. Geoff Nyarota, who was then editor of The Chronicle, was unceremoniously removed from his newspaper job and "promoted" to a public relations position after he had authored and published an expose on a vehicle acquisition and profiteering scandal involving government ministers and ruling party officials. Subsequent events have shown that Nyarota has never been forgiven for his crusading journalism. Today, he lives in exile in the United States and is blacklisted as an enemy of the state. And yet corruption would not have got out of hand to reach current levels if Nyarota's brave investigative journalism had been appreciated and the government had taken corrective measures to ensure transparency and accountability in the public sector.

Journalists are not the only people that have found themselves in trouble for trying to expose untoward activities by people in positions of power as South Africa's former director of public prosecutions, Bulelani Ngcuka, can testify. He was subjected to a vicious form of character assassination and was forced to resign for initiating a probe into financial scandals and influence peddling involving former deputy president, Jacob Zuma. Thabo Mbeki's former number two was eventually indicted for the irregularities that Ngcuka first drew attention to but Ngcuka, who was hounded out of office for doing so, paid a high personal price.

The same fate befell the man who headed Kenya's anti-corruption commission, John Githongo, who was forced to flee his homeland after he had exposed high level corruption in both former president Daniel Arap Moi's administration and current leader, Mwai Kibaki's government.

Githongo resigned about a year ago after receiving death threats for exposing graft and avarice while serving as permanent secretary for government and ethics. His attempts to investigate the Anglo Leasing scandal, which caused ripples in Kenya were blocked by four cabinet ministers implicated in the racket.

From time to time, some unfortunate minister has been made to carry the cane for the sins of a whole government in a bid to give the false impression that corruption was being fought from within and that there were no sacred cows.

Zimbabwe's former finance minister, Chris Kuruneri, who languished in remand prison for 18 months before being placed under house arrest is the only high ranking government official to have been caught in the anti-corruption dragnet since the campaign began. He was indicted for foreign currency violations involving his own funds and for holding a foreign passport.

What makes his treatment seem vindictive and sacrificial is that those plundering national resources and stealing from national coffers remain unscathed and free to continue their corrupt activities.

Whether by coincidence or concrete evidence, Malawi's former finance minister, Friday Jumbe was arrested a year ago in connection with the sale of maize from the country's grain reserves. At the beginning of this month, Kenya's finance Minister, David Mwiraira resigned after being implicated in a multi-billion scandal.

What is at issue is not that these ministers should not be exposed or arrested if there is enough evidence to suggest their involvement in illegal and unethical activities. What is jarringly hypocritical and unfair is to focus attention on them so as to cover up the misdeeds of the rest.

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