A prelude to a Cabinet reshuffle?
The Daily News published a story a year ago in which it was alleged that
$165 million had been paid out by the main contractor allegedly to bribe
various government officials in order to secure the contract for the
construction of the new Harare International Airport building.
The basis of the story was a letter written to President Mugabe by Hani
Yamani whose company, Airport Harbour Technologies, won the contract for the
$5 billion project.
Yamani claimed in the letter that the equivalent of US$3 million (then about
Z$165 million) had been paid to two Cabinet ministers, whom he named and
several government officials to secure the contract for his company.
The authenticity of Yamani’s letter has never been challenged.
Yamani originally singled out and named the Speaker of Parliament, Emmerson
Mnangagwa, and former transport minister, Enos Chikowore and recommended
that they be investigated thoroughly. Yamani said such investigations should
not only centre on the airport construction deal, but should also cover
other projects in which Mnangagwa, in particular, and members of the wealthy
Joshi family were involved through Zidco, the Zanu PF trading company.
Mnangagwa and the Joshi brothers, Jayant and Manharlal, are directors of
Zidco.
Yamani, who wrote a seven-page letter to Mugabe in July 1999, in which he
detailed the involvement of the two ministers and several civil servants
whom he accused of allegedly taking bribes, said Mugabe was fully informed
of the deals involving his trusted lieutenants, Mnangagwa and Chikowore.
After The Daily News broke the story Yamani telephoned the paper from Jedda
in Saudi Arabia to say that Mugabe should fully investigate the activities
of the two men to avoid further losses to Zimbabwe. “The issue must be
thoroughly investigated, with all corrupt people being rooted out,” Yamani
said then. “In the past I didn’t have evidence about Mnangagwa’s and the
Joshi’s bank accounts, but I have it now and I will help clean up Zimbabwe,
a country that has a lot of potential but is being pilfered day in day out
by these powerful people.”
Since then Zimbabwe has waited with bated breath for Mugabe to deal with
these serious allegations of corruption. But, alas, the last time anything
was ever said on this issue was in December when a government spokesman
warned that Mugabe would sue The Daily News for defamation. At the same time
Mnangagwa said he had instructed his own lawyers to institute legal
proceedings against the newspaper, also for defamation.
In due course the police caused two Daily News staffers, Sandra Nyaira and
Julius Zava to sign warned and cautioned statements in connection with a
case of alleged criminal defamation of Mugabe. This was back in March.
Former deputy news editor, Julius Zava, has since died.
In the meantime, not a whiff has been heard of any measures taken by
government to investigate the very serious allegations made by Yamani.
One of the greatest weaknesses of Mugabe’s rule has been his inability to
get to grips with corruption which, of his own admission, is now rampant in
Zimbabwe.
Mugabe has proved at the same time to be either totally incapable of or
unwilling to deal with errant ministers. In his 21 years at the helm, Mugabe
has fired only two Cabinet ministers, Edgar Tekere, after he was charged and
acquitted of murder, and the late Herbert Ushewokunze whom he accused of
having no sense of responsibility, discipline and conduct. But Dr
Ushewokunze bounced back in a different portfolio. In 1982 Mugabe did fire a
number of PF Zapu ministers, but for political reasons.
His preferred style has been to recycle even allegedly corrupt and patently
non-performing ministers. He went to considerable lengths to rehabilitate
some of the ministers who resigned in 1989 following exposure in the
Willowgate Scandal. Some of the officials Mugabe has surrounded himself with
are people of dubious credentials and performance. In some cases they lack
moral rectitude.
It is in this context that his intriguing statement over the weekend must be
analysed. Mugabe told revellers at Vice-President Simon Muzenda’s birthday
bash in Masvingo that he no longer had confidence in some of his Cabinet
ministers.
“If I look at the calibre of the ministers that I have, I do not trust
them,” he is reported to have said. Was this statement a prelude to yet
another Cabinet reshuffle?