A recent report by an independent corruption watchdog, Transparency International (TI), has exposed how the anti-corruption drive by President Emmerson Mnangagwa has all but been full of rhetoric as the country never improved on the Corruption Perception Index (CPI).
Ranked 160 out of 180 countries and with 22 points, Zimbabwe is one of the lower-ranked nations in an analysis that draws on 13 surveys and expert assessments to measure public sector corruption giving each a score from zero (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean).
In the 2017 CPI, Zimbabwe was ranked 154, with 2 points and much hope was put on the country when Mnangagwa took over from former president Robert Mugabe in 2017.
Mnangagwa has been on an anti-corruption talk that has not been reciprocated by action.
Failure to prosecute senior and former government officials who were dragged before the courts have seen most people lose faith in the Mnangagwa administration.
In its report, TI said, “Corruption, and impunity for corruption, undermines the legitimacy of state institutions, and the impact of corruption on job opportunities and social cohesion can also lead to instability: corruption fuels grievances which can spill over into violence.”
Recently, more than a dozen people died in violent protests over a coterie of issues ranging from corruption, misrule, human rights injustices at the hands of the Mnangagwa administration.
In its December 2018 report, the Zimbabwe Democracy Institute (ZDI) said political corruption remained a stumbling block in the government’s quest to fight graft.
“Respondents perceived that President Mnangagwa’s government is not genuine in dealing with political corruption, as less than 45% of sampled service consumers for all public institutions perceived some genuineness in government anti-corruption efforts,” ZDI principal researcher Bekezela Gumbo said.
