‘Corruption Chips Away At Democracy, Human Rights’

As Zimbabwe heads into the final year before harmonized elections mid-next year, “corruption on the ballot” has again reared its ugly head with analysts calling on government to stamp out the scourge.

“We’re a party that has a rich revolutionary legacy and let no one at any stage of our development seek to undermine or destroy this history,” President Emmerson Mnangagwa warned his party cadres against pushing their self-interest ahead of those of the party.

“You will get destroyed yourself,” he warned, vowing to clean up corruption in both party and government.

And shortly afterwards, he fired the party’s long-serving director-general (administration), retired major-general Dickson Dzora – for corruption “involving ballot printing tenders for the party’s internal primary elections”.

While some observers applauded and said it looked like the president was ready to take bold measures, other analysts are far from being convinced, saying there should be no sacred cows in the house-cleaning exercise in order to restore credibility to our elections.

“It’s time to hold the politicians and bureaucrats accountable for their mess and shenanigans,” says a ruling party staffer at the party’s headquarters in the capital told The Afronews on condition of anonymity. “We have been witnesses to these vote-rigging activities. This is a problem and that is why we continue to have challenges to our electoral processes,”

He further told this publication the ballot paper shortage scandal enraged ED (Mnangagwa’s popular nickname), fueling complaints brought before the party commissariat department as one of the reasons the provincial elections were chaotic.

The case follows a clear trend: Most who end up on the ballot are not the people’s choice candidates.

The Southern Africa Parliamentary Support Trust (SAPST), an organisation that provides technical and financial and research support to parliaments in Southern Africa in their core functions of oversight and representations, has urged accountability and transparency to ensure citizens participate in freely and fairly in elections.

In a statement to this publication, SAPST notes deficiencies in the fair treatment of citizens and in some cases “abuse of power suppresses the Constitutional entitlements of citizens, hence their failure to express their choices and desires freely”.

And, as if reading from the same hymn book as President Mnangagwa, SAPST concurs that in an environment thick with corruption, “the undeserving will end up benefitting at the expense of the deserving ones”.

“In this case, it follows that enjoyment of human rights is disturbed,” the statement says, adding, “no one is spared”.

“This discrimination impacts on enjoyment of human rights since the Constitution sets equitable treatment of men and women,” the statement says, further explaining that in some extreme cases , corruption manifests as “sextortion” – forcing women to engage in unwanted sex encounters to receive or gain favours which should naturally not be t case.”

Not only that but corruption becomes a threat to sustainable development and livelihoods of people with disabilities after embezzlement of assistive devices!

Defined as “the abuse of entrusted power for private gain”, according to Transparency International, costs the country a large amount of financial, political and social resources.

Corruption undermines the legitimacy of government, and as such, democratic values as trust and tolerance, are not respected.

And frequent scandals, like the one above, illustrate that the scourge is a serious problem even around the highest office and at every level.

Takunda Tsunga, from the Elections Resource Centre, says corruption negates participatory democracy, as it excludes citizens from exercising accountability and oversight of state institutions and individuals.”

Responding to questions from The Afronews, the ERC, a think-tank election, research and democracy advocacy organization in the country, says corruption gnaws at democratic values to produce a vicious cycle, where corruption undermines democratic institutions and, in turn, weak institutions are less able to control corruption.

“There ceases to be a burden of accountability on public office bearers,” says Tsunga. “There is a disenfranchisement of vulnerable groups from enjoying what would otherwise be basic rights, such as the right to information, expression and the right to hold the government to account,” he explains.

“Corruption impacts the enjoyment of rights by divorcing representation from constitutional supremacy,” he emphasises.

The right to hold the government to account at the ballot through elections – and corruption affects all inalienable and further generation rights, either directly or indirectly.”.

The two organisations separately concur and recommend that if public office bearers are brought to account for all their operations, promoting transparency, leaving little to no room for corrupt activities to take place.

The two further observe that the country’s Vision 2030 and any other socio-economic development mantra should be premised on free, fair and credible elections that ensure that sustainable democracy and promote citizen participation in government in all level and tiers of government – otherwise democracy becomes a myth!

TAN