Reflections on Zanu PF Anti-Corruption drive

The Zanu PF Annual Conference held in Gweru in the year 2012 marked the revolutionary party's determination to weed itself of the rot of corruption. At that time Zanu PF was in the Inclusive Government with both MDC formations.

Two years later, and nearly a year after Zanu PF romped to victory in the July 31, 2013 harmonised general elections which gave it a majority in the House of Assembly, the revolutionary party through its economic blue print the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Economic Transformation (ZIMASSET) which it has unleashed, has activated the implementation of its 2012 resolutions on the fight against corruption.

While, Zanu PF's zero tolerance calls to corruption are most welcome, there is a serious missing link that is necessary to the full implementation of the eradication of corruption without reducing the process to talk show. Under the current set up in which Zanu PF seeks to fight corruption it risks either consuming itself in the process or losing confidence from the masses on its ability to fight the scourge as it reduces the process to mere lip service.

A party's ability and capacity to fight the corruption scourge is set to be one of the major barometers through which the electorate is set to judge performance of political parties in future elections and whether to vote for them or not.

 China's Hu Jintao in 2006, while making reference to the corruption scourge warned that, "the time bomb buried under the society could … lead to a series of explosions, which would cause chaos throughout the society and paralyse the administration."

For a young democracy like Zimbabwe, it does not need to re-invent the wheel in its fight against corruption, but simply adopt a "cut and paste approach", drawing from the experiences of the developed world.

The missing link in Zanu PF's fight against corruption is a party's commission, divorced from Government structures, that is charged solely to monitor and look into issues of graft relating to all its membership at all levels. The commission should be a creation of the party for the party. This is not what we are seeing in the Zanu PF crusade to fight corruption.

As things stand if what is obtaining in Zimbabwe's press today is the way Zanu PF has chosen to deal with corruption, this is suicidal on the part of the revolutionary movement.

Zanu PF has enjoyed good relations with China since time of the liberation struggle. China provides a very interesting model of combating corruption which Zanu PF can borrow from.

For example senior party members in China are much like members of the US Military when it comes to criminal investigations. They cannot be arrested by civilian law enforcement bodies or other outside agencies from criminal offenses until the allegations have been investigated by the party first.

But as things stand now in Zimbabwe, the Zanu PF party even though it has the framework to tackle corruption it is not capacitated internally to carry out such investigations. It can only outsource to Government agencies a danger for the party itself. Such a commission or organ to fight corruption could fall under the State Security portfolio of Zanu PF that is supervised by the party's appointed Politburo Secretary for State Security.

In China the chorus is, "The party catches and kills – and protects – its own for good political reason. Exposing its members to investigations by outside bodies would be intolerable as it would be akin to ceding the party's monopoly on power."

China's anti-graft body, The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, "has a modest staff of 800 fulltime staff at the head office. It is decentralized with small branches at each level of government and in each organ of the state. Every province, city and state Organisation under them, all have their own anti-graft commissions or representatives to keep an eye on the party members. Large companies have an in house commission delegate as well."

The commission alone, as the party's in house anti-graft body, has the right to investigate officials and detain them when it decides they have a case to answer. For any official it wants to probe, the commission must first get clearance by the party body one level up in the governing body

In Zimbabwe's body politic we have two parallel but equally powerful supreme making decision bodies that are the Cabinet in Government and Politburo in Zanu PF the party. You have a situation where some Cabinet Ministers are not in the Politburo with the reverse being true as well. Under such circumstances the challenge then becomes how the two most powerful bodies find each other and move forward the fight against the scourge.

It is for that reason why the fight against the scourge should start at the party, before being brought to the attention of the Zanu PF in Government.

With the current set up, there is a huge potential for Zanu PF's anti-corruption campaign to be reduced to a boisterous thunder with no rains at all, thereby laying a not so comfortable campaign foundation for the party's future elections.

In as much as the fight against corruption should be undertaken, Zanu PF should also reflect on the soliloquy made by one Chinese which reads:

"Can we allow the era of opening and reform to remove us from power and replace us with the capitalist classes? That absolutely won't work. We can't push the anti-corruption campaign definitely. For who else can the regime depend on for support but the great masses of middle-level cadres? If they are not given any advantages, why should they dedicate themselves for the regime? They give their unwavering support to the regime because they get benefits from the system. Corruption makes our political system more stable. Moreover, a long anti-corruption campaign would expose the dark side of the Communist Party. If many of these things were to be exposed, the masses would lose their faith in the Chinese Communist Party. Who would accept the historic responsibility for doing that?"