Why Corruption is Now Endemic: The West And The Bane of Africa

07 February 2011

By Reason Wafawarova

A people who do not share history, who do not appreciate the shared experiences that their history and nationhood represents, are a people who cannot utilise mutual trust, dependability and a sense of unity of purpose; and this is the bane of Africa upon which lies the legendary failure to build sustainable, let alone successful economic social systems.

The statement above will appeal a lot to ethicists, idealists and moralists, and of course to the multitudes of people across the world who stand in indignation as victims of corruption by those who abuse various forms of privileges available to them by the positions to which they are entrusted by their peoples.

The 2010 Transparency International corruption index ranked Zimbabwe on number 134. The index had 178 countries and Somalia was rated the most corrupt country on this planet, while Denmark stood as the least corrupt country the world over, New Zealand coming second best, UK standing at number 20 and neighbouring South Africa standing at number 54.

The ratings are based on Corruption Perception Indexes (CPIs) and, of course, the margin of error is dependent on a number of factors, like publicity, politicisation and methodology of the surveys carried out.
That notwithstanding, corruption in Zimbabwe and in the rest of Africa is as apparent as is Africa's poverty. One can almost touch corruption with bare hands in the African governance system.

There are many forms of corruption in Zimbabwe and in Africa today and the most talked about is political corruption.This is the use of legislated powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain.

On an annual basis the world has US$1 trillion paid in bribes alone.The impact of this practice on fair trade, efficiency in service delivery and accountability is, of course, phenomenally ruinous, especially in developing countries like Zimbabwe.

Other forms of corruption include extortion, cronyism, nepotism, patronage, graft, embezzlement and kickbacks.
In Zimbabwe it is acceptable that one influential person can publicly recruit people from his home area for employment in the private or public sector.

The practice is even considered honourable by the benefiting communities.This writer once ran the placement desk for the recruitment of National Youth Service graduates into the job market and is still very alive to the expectations expressed by those from Bikita in particular,Masvingo in general and those of the Shumba Mhazi totem specifically.

It was made abundantly clear to this writer that the placement desk was an unquestionable privilege for all the people of Bikita, for those from Masvingo Province and a very special honour for the people of Chirumhanzu, an area where the majority of my Shumba Mhazi clan resides.

As such this writer was always inundated with visits, telephone calls and even instructions to make sure that "our people are the first to get those jobs".

One deputy minister once paraded this writer at a rally somewhere in Masvingo Province and told the audience, "uyu mukomana anoti kana aona maZezuru anobva akanganwa kuti akafa tisu maKaranga tichamuviga", meaning: "This young man gets carried away whenever he mixes up with the Zezuru people, oblivious to the fact that when he dies it is us hisKaranga people who will bury him."

That actually seemed to make a lot of sense to the audience, who looked at this prodigal son with eyes that clearly demanded either an apology or a sound explanation. This writer grinned sheepishly and took all the "humiliation" that came with this undressing with what could be called humility by others, certainly an admission of guilt on the part of the deputy minister's appalled audience. I stood there as the appalling forgetter of his own people.

Here was one person being treated like a hopelessly treacherous son of his home community, and all for deciding to give Zimbabweans a fair opportunity in a programme that was clearly national in context.

In reality we are looking at an example where there is an element of public endorsement for corrupt exclusion of other people from benefits that are meant to be for all citizens.

Corruption has deadly effects on politics, administration and national institutions. It poses a serious threat to development, often stalling progress altogether, or resulting in lengthy delays in the completion of development projects.

Accountability in elections and legislative bodies has been known to be grossly undermined by corruption. There were a number of voting centres in Kenya where up to 130 percent of registered voters "cast" votes in the ballot box in December 2007, and these polling stations had both the ruling party and the opposition benefiting.

There are reports of similar happenings having taken place recently in Cote d'Ivoire's North, and these allegations form the basis for Laurent Gbagbo's argument that the Constitutional Council was right in nullifying votes from some centres to the benefit his own cause.

Why the UN and others quickly announced the victory of Ouattara without investigating the claims of the Constitutional Council will remain a mystery for a long time.

Corruption in the judiciary compromises the rule of law, and in Africa there are numerous allegations of selective application of the law, altering of charges to lesser offences, or undue delays in prosecuting certain offenders.

Zimbabwe has had its fair share of these allegations and in some cases officials from the judiciary have been prosecuted, while others have been convicted.

In public administration, corruption has often resulted in inefficient provision of services, and in Zimbabwe the urban local governments have of late become notorious for poor service delivery and hyper-corruption.

There are dire economic effects resulting from corruption. In the private sector corruption increases the cost of business through the price of illicit payments, bribes and kickbacks.

In the public sector bribes induce officials to contrive new rules and delays in order to manufacture crises. The cycle of manufactured crises creating artificial scarcity and exacerbating bribing has become a common way of government operations across Africa.

In Zimbabwe people are often simply told, "Sit there while we try to sort out your problem" and they are made to wait until business closes down, and then they are told to "come back tomorrow". The waiting often only ends after a bribe has been paid.

In some places the bribe is brazenly and publicly solicited for, even blatantly demanded.

It is common to see a traffic police officer openly ordering a commuter bus operator to pay for his way past a roadblock. The news would not sell a newspaper in Zimbabwe, not in Kenya or even in South Africa.

In the public sector the diversion of public investment to capital projects is quite common. This is because capital projects are notorious for the opportunity they provide for bribes and kickbacks.

One of the major setbacks resulting from corruption is lack of compliance with construction, environment or any other regulations that may be in place to ensure quality. As a result government services have largely become synonymous with poor quality.

In Africa, there is this unpalatable tradition of externalisation of financial capital by political leaders and other looters to overseas destinations.

Nigeria had US$400 billion stolen from treasury by the country's leaders between 1960 and 1999. That is quite phenomenal.

Researchers from the University of Massachusetts found out that US$187 billion was externalised by Sub-Saharan African leaders between 1970 and 1996. This massive looting was, of course, from a handful of powerful elites.

Politicians often steal more in times of political instability, or when their terms of office are due to expire.

Another major cause for the externalisation of financial capital by politicians is the fear of expropriation of stolen assets by new governments. Africa has many stories of new governments confiscating assets stolen by ousted politicians. So the incumbent politicians find it prudent to stash away their loot in foreign countries where they believe the loot will be out of reach.

Corruption has had drastic effects on humanitarian aid. This ranges from diversion of food aid, selling of food aid, exclusion of others, to soliciting for bribes, sexual and other forms of favours.

The question to ask among Zimbabweans is how did things come to this? Not so long ago we believed corruption was a culture of our Northern, Southern, Eastern and Western neighbours.

Just about a decade ago, we used to proclaim utter shock at what we saw at the Zambia-Zimbabwe border post, the Botswana-Zimbabwe border post, the Mozambique-Zimbabwe border post and the South Africa-Zimbabwe post.
Now these shocking people are utterly shocked with the new behaviour of the once super-righteous Zimbabweans. We now lead the pack.

Scholars have come up with a number of causes for corruption, and it may be beneficial to have a quick look at some of these.

One cause for corruption is opportunity and this is what one Bernadette M. Gawans described as "just like the envelope of cash sitting in the parking lot".

These opportunities may arise from government-created monopolies, or from real or created crises in service provision.

The second cause for corruption is little chance of getting caught, itself a result of lack of accountability, lack of transparency.

This writer's experience in Zimbabwe's public service has a sad side where some public officials clearly felt that they were not obliged to explain what they were doing, including acquitting funds allocated to them for the benefit of the public. This writer is certain that the tradition has not at all changed even today.

The most abused budget allocation in Government is the Travel and Subsistence Allowance. That money has done more in building privately owned houses than it has facilitated travel or subsistence for civil servants.

Then there is this brazen doctrine of impunity.In 1994, a son of a prominent politician was arrested by Borrowdale police for a drug-related offence alongside other teenage colleagues.

The police were apparently not aware who the young man was. The young man asked for a phone and he called to inform his father of what had happened.

Another very senior politician pitched up at the police station and asked "Mwana wangana ngana ari kupi?", "Where is so and so's son?"

The police asked who the son of "so and so" was and the very senior politician gave the name.The boy was brought out of the cells and the senior politician told the boy to sit and eat the food his aides had brought in. He then toured the police station with the bunch of police officers and on returning he simply said, "Taenda isu vakomana", "Boys, we are out of here", and off he went with the offender; without even asking what had happened.

Instead of pursuing the matter, the police officers were blaming each other for not having asked the boy who he was born to.

Such impunity of power holders is quite inherent in African politics.

The third cause of corruption is bad incentives. Poor salaries such as the ones currently being received by Zimbabwean civil servants are a breeding ground for corruption.

People working in an environment where they are meant to collect on behalf of Government an ocean of funds cannot be expected to make do with next to nothing as remuneration for their efforts. Even if they were not exposed to too much cash, opportunities to take advantage of others will always abound.

This writer visited yet another deputy minister in July 2010 at his Harare office. The man made it very clear that only "an absolute fool" would not "do something" to add on to the "meagre salaries" paid to civil servants.

He revealed his own salary that was well below US$500 per month and he questioned this writer, "Reason, why do you think I left my job as a partner in a law firm to come and sit here all day for this little salary?"

I hope my good friend is not up to corrupt ways. But the point is that with such bad incentives corruption becomes inevitable, sad as it may sound.

Fourthly, there is the question of attitude. People in general would resort to corruption and other illicit ways when a government law is considered to be a bad law or illegitimate.

Lastly, there is the issue of survival. Sometimes a bribe may be considered as the only way out of a situation and many Zimbabwean drivers who paid licensing officers for their driving licences will bear testimony to this claim. Even pastors and priests have paid these kinds of bribes.

Sometimes the issue of survival is as selfish as just wanting to get an unfair advantage over others, or simply to get things done quicker.

The scourge of corruption is not exactly a problem attributable to one political party, as the propagandists against Zanu-PF will often claim.

Zanu-PF is neither the creator nor the cause of corruption, guilty as the party may be for its own complicity, omissions and commissions in the whole matter.

The matter comes down to the structure of the economy, the political culture in the country, the attitudes of our people, and of course the borrowed economic culture where we own banks without having the money to invest in them, building economic systems reliant upon the dictates of others from outside.

We want to live big before we build an economic base. Progressive people do it the other way round. They build a strong economic base before they live large. It is us dominated people coming from colonial backgrounds who always want to do things backwards.

Zimbabwe we are one and together we will overcome. It is homeland or death.

Reason Wafawarova is a political writer and can be contacted on wafawarova@yahoo.co.uk or reason@rwafawarova.com or visit www.rwafawarova. com

 

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