Source: Corruption biggest threat to ED’s presidency -Newsday Zimbabwe
President Emmerson MnangagwaPRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa’s biographer, Eddie Cross, says unimaginable corruption in the country, according to reports, is the single biggest threat to the presidency.
While giving his first state of the nation address after he assumed power in 2017 following a military coup that ousted his predecessor, the late Robert Mugabe, Mnangagwa said his administration had zero tolerance for the vice.
Over the years, observers have complained about lack of political will to tackle graft, with reports indicating that the country is losing at least US$2 billion annually to corruption.
Shocking corruption scandals have been exposed in recent times, but observers continually complain about the catch and release syndrome particularly in cases involving bigwigs, with most of them tumbling before they even go to trial.
Cross, a former adviser to the President, said Monday’s national shutdown pointed to growing dissatisfaction with the leadership over widespread corruption in the country involving tenderpreneurs.
“The city was silent, but it was talking loud and I hope the President was listening,” Cross told NewsAfrica on Monday during an interview about the annual shutdown.
“The amount of money being stolen here is just enormous. It probably exceeds our national budget.
“The problem is that he (Mnangagwa) has not been able to tackle some of the most fundamental problems we have.”
A planned national protest against corruption and alleged misgovernance turned into a shutdown on Monday.
One of the organisers of the protests, outspoken war veteran Blessed “Bombshell” Geza, said the stayaway nonetheless succeeded in sending a loud and clear message to government.
“He has not tackled corruption,” Cross said.
“If he doesn’t get on top of that, the dissatisfaction with his regime is going to continue, maybe even deepen.”
According to Transparency International, the country is losing as much as US$2 billion annually to smuggling.
In 2023, Qatar-based television network, Al Jazeera, released a documentary exposing how the politically connected were involved in the smuggling of gold.
Cross said there was need for strong leadership and political courage to address Zimbabwe’s structural problems
“Our problems can be resolved. Our fundamentals are sound. We have a growing economy. Our exports are bigger than our imports, but we have structural problems and those must be attended to,” he said.
Mnangagwa faces growing opposition within the ruling Zanu PF party over controversial plans to have his term of office extended from 2028 to 2030.
However, he has publicly indicated that he does not intend to stay on beyond 2028, but has failed to rein in those pushing the 2030 agenda.
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