It looks as though the Zisco scandal is going to be swept under the carpet like so many scandals before. President Mugabe has decreed, I understand, that the official report produced recently by the National Economic Conduct Inspectorate be suppressed.

Only a few insiders have seen the report. Leaks allege that it highlights wholesale looting of assets by senior government ministers and the politically well-connected, massive externalisation of funds and gross financial mismanagement.

Apparently, to sweeten their nefarious activities, the management of Zisco donated huge amounts of fuel to the ruling party and to vice-president Joice Mujuru’s 2005 election campaign. This has not been denied. Indeed management was at pains in the local press this week to point out that such “donations” are totally acceptable and only to be expected –“within the context of the country’s politics” – whatever that means.
Basically it means one hand washes the other, if you ask me.

The Zanu (PF) members of the parliamentary committee set up to look into the operations of Zisco in the light of disinvestments by a major Indian company citing political interference, has demanded a copy of the report. They have not received one. And in fact individual members of the committee are now being leaned on by senior ministers to let sleeping dogs lie and not to pursue the matter.

I understand that the report is explosive and leads all the way to the top – i.e. to Mugabe himself.

Surprisingly, or not, Zimbabwe is one of the few countries in Africa, indeed in the world, with an anti-corruption commission and a minister in charge of anti-corruption. Fantastic.

But every time a major corruption scandal breaks, it is simply greeted by a deafening silence. As with so many reports before, the government shredders are no doubt working overtime. And so the corrupt ministers and politburo members, already obscenely wealthy, get away with it once again.

I do hope somebody has had the foresight to keep a copy of the Zisco report – in a safe place. The best thing they can do is to make this available to the people of Zimbabwe who have a right to know just who is looting their children’s future.




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Wilf Mbanga, one of the founders of the independent Zimbabwean daily newspaper "The Daily News", is currently living in the UK. He writes about the current situation in Zimbabwe.