Striking University Lecturers met Chinamasa, did they demand an end to corruption

In the mid-1990s  I had the opportunity to meet the leading Trade Union leader (it will be not be necessary to name him). Gone were the ease years of the 1980s when on the then Prime Minister Robert Mugabe announced hefty pay increases for the all the workers across the board and have price controls on many goods and services. All that ended when the Zanu-PF government accepted its first World Bank/ International Monetary Fund (WB/IMF) sponsored five-year Economic Structural Adjustment Programme (ESAP); price controls ended and workers were instructed to negotiate with the employers wage increases.

I spend an evening trying to explain to the Trade Union Leader why it was important to take into consideration the rate of inflation, amongst other factors, in deciding what wage increase to ask for.  He did not understand what I was talking about. It does not how much one may try to gloss over this, knowledge is important; those whose actions are guided by knowledge have prospered whilst those who have blundered from pillar to post have suffered.

Two related stories occurred to illustrate the critical importance of knowledge. The first story was about lecturers in Zimbabwe's State Universities going on strike to demand payment of their January salary and 2014 bonus. Whilst all the other civil servant had finally been paid their January wages and the bonus they had been singled out with no explanation from the employer, government.

The second story was on how the national army had reportedly muscled in on a $4.8 billion platinum mining project.

"The ministry also wants the benefits of the deal to accrue to Zimbabweans and treasury, rather than the army. We don't want a repeat of the Chiadzwa scenario where the country is not truly benefiting from its diamonds. The army partnered the Chinese in mining diamonds, but the country has nothing to show for the resource," a source in the Ministry of Mines told the Mail and Guardian newspaper.

It is a matter of record that former finance minister Tendai Biti and the current incumbent, Patrick Chinamasa, have complained about the diamond revenue not being properly accounted for. The late Zanu-PF MP Chindori Chininga went even further and said in a parliamentary report in 2013 that the diamond mining in Chiadzwa and Marange was going on 24/7, the gems were shipped out of the country as quickly as they are extracted and that no one in the Zimbabwe government knew anything about diamonds; their size, quality, value, who was buying and selling them, etc.

In a rare moment of concern for the nation interest, the then Vice President Joice Mujuru complained of how in India a who city had sprung up to cut, make jewellery, diamond tools, etc. from diamonds imported from Zimbabwe.

Some people have valued Chiadzwa and Marange diamonds at a staggering $800 billion.  Partnership Africa Canada, a Canadian NGO, estimated that Mugabe earned a staggering $2 billion from his share of the diamond looting in 2012 alone! The looting and plunder going on there is absolutely shocking.

According to the Mail and Guardian report Mugabe was set to approve the Army muscling in on the platinum mining deal. The upshot of that Russian and Zimbabwe National Army consortium would not pay any taxes for the first five years of the project. Not content with the looting and plunder of the diamonds the country's ruling elite want to loot and plunder the platinum mines too.

International organisation have flatly refused to classify Zimbabwe as a poor country and write off it's $10 billion debt because Zimbabwe is NOT a poor country. If the country's wealth and riches were managed properly there is no reason why Zimbabwe should not be one of the richest and most prosperous nations on earth.

One expected the Trade Union Leader to know what inflation is all about. I expected the State University to know what inflation is about and more significantly to know of Zimbabwe's true economic potential and the criminal waste of resources such as diamonds through corruption and looting.

A delegation of the striking State University lecturers was scheduled to meet a high powered government team headed by Finance Minister, Patrick Chinamasa and the deputy Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education, Dr Godfrey Gandawa, to ensure their salaries are paid on time in future. Whilst I would have not expected my Trade Union friend to raise the matter of the criminal waste of the national mineral wealth through corruption and looting, I would expect the lecturers to raise it as a matter of cause because it is the root cause of government's financial problems.

The Lecturer and government official meeting was chalked to take place on Monday 18th February 2015 I had not seen report on what was discussed; still I am cock sure the lecturers did not raise the issue of corruption and looting. This begs the questions; if University Lecturers do not know that corruption and looting are the root causes behind Zimbabwe's economic meltdown what hope is there that my aunt in the rural back waters will know that?

 If University Lecturers know that corruption and looting are indeed the root causes behind Zimbabwe's economic meltdown, in which they too have been not been spared of the economic hardships, but are too cowardly to raise these critical issues with government officials; who do they expect to do so?

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Wilbert  Mukori zimbabwesocialdemocrats@gamil.com