Moyo challenges Mugabe on salarygate

FORMER State Enterprises and Parastatals minister Gorden Moyo has challenged President Robert Mugabe to show his sincerity in tackling obscene salaries earned by parastatal, State entity and local authority bosses by setting up an independent commission to probe endemic corruption in the country.

"If he is serious about corruption, then he should today set up a commission like the Sandura Commission and the findings should go to Parliament and not him," Moyo said at a public meeting organised by Crisis Coalition Zimbabwe (CCZ) and Transparency International last Thursday in Masvingo.

Moyo, who is also the MDC-T Bulawayo provincial chairperson and Makokoba MP, said there was nothing new about the exposé on obscene salaries and perks as Zanu-PF was in the know.

"There is nothing new . . . Mugabe and the entire Cabinet knew about it. It is just factional politics at play, hence the exposés. We talked of it during the inclusive government period and there are several companies involved. We conducted a survey and by then in 2011, the highest obscene perks were around $20 000 per month," he said.

Moyo said he took the report to Cabinet, but nothing was done about it.

"I took the matter to Cabinet after proposing $5 000 and Cabinet said it was good and ministers should implement the new proposal, but nothing was implemented. The salaries were increased instead. The decision was ignored because an MDC-T minister was overseeing parastatals," he said.

Moyo said several ministers from Zanu-PF did not implement the decision because they fed from the same trough with the parastatal bosses.

"Some ministers were beneficiaries of the loot. They did not implement the decision because they were part of the looting. Even up to now, they are beneficiaries," he said.

Moyo said corruption in the country would not end unless the culprits were brought to book.

"Corruption will remain deeply entrenched in the country because those exposed are not yet arrested. Dissolving boards alone is not enough. Mugabe denounces corruption and that is as far as it goes. He will do nothing about corruption. The country needs a major paradigm shift from such a corruption mentality. There should be a complete overhaul," he added.