'Politicians are like napkins, they need to be changed often,' says Moyo

FORMER State Enterprises (SEPs) and Parastatals minister Gorden Moyo yesterday said politicians are like napkins and they need to be changed often.

Moyo said this in Bulawayo during a book launch of four Transparency International Zimbabwe publications on the 2014 state of corruption in Zimbabwe.

"Politicians are like napkins and they need to be changed often. We need new characters to reconstruct the State," he said.

Moyo also blamed the corruption and chaos at most State companies on the First Family and Cabinet ministers.

"When I was minister of SEPs I discovered that they were part of the estates of the First Family and fellow Cabinet ministers, and if you are a minister of SEPs in Zimbabwe you have no job," Moyo said.

"You cannot have problems in SEPs without having problems in the State which is comprised of the population, institutions and government which is the most important component of the State, and if there is a problem in the State it means the problem is in government where presidents and ministers have become some of the very richest people in the world."

Moyo said, while Mugabe had a super majority in Parliament, was leader of Sadc and African Union and was friendly to the Chinese who had a very good blueprint on SEPs, he had failed to use those advantages to combat corruption and resuscitate the comatose SEPs.

"The real problem is in the militarisation and politicisation of our SEPs. It is politicisation in that politicians are using SEPs for their political activities, for example, First Lady Grace Mugabe's adverts on Zupco.

"The purpose for militarisation in SEPs is not efficiency - it is about keeping them - a home where you will find ex-military, ex-ministers and police officers appointed there as their retirement home."