corruption

OPEN MEDIA AND ROBUST PARLIAMENT KEY IN FIGHTING CORRUPTION
It’s been a little over 2 years since the establishment of the coalition government and there is controversy about its successes or the lack thereof. While there seems to be consensus on the government’s performance on the economic front, the human rights and democracy scorecards seem to paint a different picture. Anyhow this coalition government may have created what is turning out to be masterstroke, the commissioning of the Zimbabwe Media Commission and the subsequent issuing of licences to private media groups. There is no doubt this has created greater space for human rights defenders and democracy activists as they are gaining increased exposure locally. And to really hammer this point down corrupt politicians are now feeling the heat and are now resorting to threats of lawsuits in their attempts to cow the private media. However the media could potentially play another very important role; that is exposing corruption and now with an increasingly robust parliament we could really turn the tide against corruption. For years debate around the economy’s decline has been around restrictive measures or ‘sanctions’ and the role of corruption and maladministration has been understated. The independent media could help to correct this by exposing corrupt activities and explaining how such activities destroy the economy in the longer term. In fact this is apparently the norm elsewhere in democracies where the media plays a critical role in exposing corruption everywhere and we should do well to learn from this. The current phone hacking storm in the UK was exposed courtesy of the robust media and such exposure has resulted the Commons or parliament there instituting investigations into the whole saga which has even roped in the prime minister. There have been arrests and resignations in the wake of this controversy clearly underlying the importance of robust and independent media in a functioning democracy. In fact not far from Zimbabwe, a few years a powerful politician Toni Yengeni in SA was sentenced to prison after he was exposed in corruption just like Schabir Shaik a former key enabler of the SA’s president and this all happened because the media and parliament played such an important role in exposing and tackling such illegal activities. This brings us to our own situation which encouragingly is showing signs that we could be moving towards the same. Over the last few months parliament has become more courageous with members of both houses now becoming bolder in their business. For instance the a minister is currently facing contempt of parliament charges because he lied under oath, parliamentarians are condemning security leaders for meddling in politics and actually demanding these face the house. We may still be a long way before we reach the level of South Africa but certainly these soldiers are starting to feel the pressure and all this was unthinkable just 3 years ago. It is in this context that I think the fight against corruption can be stepped up and the sanctions mantra would really lose ground as evidence of pilferage, corruption and theft of state property is laid bare. What is probably now needed is a whistle blowing initiative which will then provide the lead to media organisations in exposing all shady activities. For years there was a sense that corrupt individuals were getting away without paying the penalty because there was no exposure of their misdeeds. In cases were these were exposed little or no action was taken because there simply was no oversight, the parliament was dead. At least that has changed now. What has not changed at least for now is the actual conviction of those exposed to deter further corruption. That however does not negate what is already happening on this front because as experience has shown once powerful people have been exposed their colleagues will be pressured to relieve them of their duties. After the Willowgate scandal rocked the country several years ago those implicated were eventually relieved from their positions. This particular case helps to drive this point that exposure is often the catalyst required to cause arrests or inquiries. Therefore the media needs to be encouraged to continue exposing then action will be taken no matter how belatedly.