Power corrupts any individual
#000000 size=3 face="Times New Roman">It is human nature that when one is in power he wants to use that power for personal gains to the dismay of those outside. Those who are not in power are ever complaining of being left out on important issues especially on decision-making. As a result many political parties have been born out of men and women who feel they have better ideologies to propel the country forward.
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#000000 size=3 face="Times New Roman">MDC as an opposition political party in the country came and preached democracy and a corrupt free society. They even promised those who cared to listen that once they were in power there would be massive auctioning of Mercedes Benz and other luxury vehicles being used by top government officials.
#000000 size=3 face="Times New Roman">Such ideas were well received by some gullible Zimbabweans who hoped that the new political dispensation in the offing would be better than the status quo.
#000000 size=3 face="Times New Roman">When MDC formations joined ZANU PF in the inclusive government two years ago, people had high hopes that the party stalwarts who were going to be part of government were going to be the new broom that cleansed the room.
#000000 size=3 face="Times New Roman">But, people were forgetting a saying by a historian and moralist, Lord Acton who said "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely". The two MDC formations are now on the forefront of doing the vices they condemned when they were outside government circles.
#000000 size=3 face="Times New Roman">When people had high expectations of the unity government availing funds for essential services in education and health, the "Super Minister" of Finance, Tendai Biti was releasing over twenty million dollars ($20m) for Ministers' vehicles.
#000000 size=3 face="Times New Roman">Tendai Biti who had been saying that government had no money to award civil servants increment choosing to award them thirty-one dollars ($31) across the board spent over $20 million buying top-of-the-range luxury vehicles for government ministers, deputy ministers and permanent secretaries.
#000000 size=3 face="Times New Roman">This scandalous and reckless spending by Tendai Biti and company comes at a time when hospitals have no medicines, running water and electricity.
#000000 size=3 face="Times New Roman">Only recently a shocking story made rounds that doctors and nurses at Parirenyatwa Hospital had to conclude an operation using candles because due to load shedding by ZESA. About sixteen premature babies were reported to have died recently at the same hospital because there was no electricity to power the machines in their ward.
#000000 size=3 face="Times New Roman">In simple mathematics the money that was used by Tendai Biti to purchase such vehicles was enough to drill about five thousand boreholes if one was costing four thousand dollars to drill, a developmental project that would have gone a long way in addressing persistent water shortages in the country and help fight waterborne diseases.
#000000 size=3 face="Times New Roman">The two MDC formations who marketed themselves as corrupt-free have shown that they are not immune to the corruption of power.
#000000 size=3 face="Times New Roman">The ministers are not even ashamed of their behaviours of having such luxurious vehicles when essential services of the country are suffering and depleted. Those luxurious cars came on top of the relatively new fleet of cars they had already been using which includes Mercedes Benz and other pool vehicles for their spouses and children.
#000000 size=3 face="Times New Roman">Minister Biti who continues to defy the advice of others recently added woes to the ordinary people by imposing duty on imported basic goods which has already seen the rise of prices which have been relatively stable for a long time.
#000000 size=3 face="Times New Roman">While Biti is claiming that import restrictions were meant to protect the local industry but the move is likely to cause basic food shortages as the local industry is operating at around forty per cent (40%) production. With this level of production coupled with import restrictions imposed recently, basic goods are likely to varnish from shops and pandemonium may ensue.
#000000 size=3 face="Times New Roman">The ordinary person especially civil servants and the marginalized are already feeling the pinch of Minister Biti's unfocused running of the Zimbabwean economy.
#000000 size=3 face="Times New Roman">While the country is desperately in need of money to finance important services in the country, Minister Biti had been ignoring nearly five hundred and five million dollars ($505) received from International monetary Fund (IMF) which is lying idle since 2009.
#000000 size=3 face="Times New Roman">The money which is kept as reserves by Biti in the IMF coffers could be utilized for essential services like health and water reticulations and solve our perennial problems.
#000000 size=3 face="Times New Roman">As if Biti's behaviour is not enough, Morgan Tsvangirai the MDC-T president and Zimbabwean Prime Minister in conjunction with his nephew Hebson Makuvise the Zimbabwean ambassador to Germany, are alleged to have misappropriated money amounting to $1,5 million in public funds which was meant to buy a mansion for him in the posh Harare suburb of Highlands.
#000000 size=3 face="Times New Roman">It is alleged that Tsvangirai used Makuvise to move money that was released to the CBZ by the Reserve Bank of
#000000 size=3 face="Times New Roman">On the other hand Tendai Biti is alleged to have released $1m from Treasury for Tsvangirai to buy the same house which Tsvangirai had obtained $1,5m from RBZ in 2009 for it.
#000000 size=3 face="Times New Roman">Tsvangirai just kept quite and did not tell Biti that he had already got the money for the house. Biti did not even try to find out from RBZ whether Tsvangirai had already got that money but just released the money as he wanted his president to get the house. As Finance Minister, Biti could have investigated movements of such transaction before releasing any money.
#000000 size=3 face="Times New Roman">Around the country all MDC-T run local councils are embroiled in corruption allegations. Recently Chitungwiza mayor, Israel Marange was expelled from council as he was caught on the wrong side of the law. Marange allocated himself a lot of stands when people in the area are failing to get even a single one.
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#000000 size=3 face="Times New Roman">Countrywide all the MDC-T councilors are positioning themselves to amass wealth before they are booted out in the next elections
#000000 size=3 face="Times New Roman">Such moves by Biti and company show that one can only complain of misuse of power by others when outside the parameters of that power but once you are in it one becomes part of the system and all else is forgotten.
