A former government minister, speaking on condition of anonymity, has revealed to The Zimbabwean that the larger part of funds set aside for social welfare, reconstruction and the land reform programme was looted. He said the regime also indulged in diverting funds intended for social and economic programmes to other self-serving projects, mainly those aimed at safeguarding its power.
“A number of cases went unnoticed although in some of the instances, there were clear signs of things having gone the wrong way,” the former minister says. “The scandal at Willowvale Mazda Motor Industries was just a tip of the iceberg, among others that included the looting of the Social Dimension Fund, funding for the Land Resettlement Programme and the National Social Security Authority (NSSA). In addition, all state-run institutions or parastatals were at the mercy of top officials.
“These institutions were taken as part of the broader system of the Zanu (PF) regime, and were milked, in several instances done to help or sponsor party programmes,” he said.
Former mayor of Gweru, Patrick Kombayi, one of the guerrilla leaders during the liberation war says he at one time protested to Mugabe and other government officials over the looting of funds given by the international community for reconstruction and development programmes.
“Nobody to this day knows what happened to the huge amounts of money that were provided by the UK for development after independence, and the same applies to funds for the land resettlement programme … but I can tell you a number of Mugabe’s people bought farms, businesses and a lot of properties through looting these funds,” said Kombayi.
Morgan Tsvangirai, president of the opposition MDC, said queries were raised at one point regarding the administration of funds at NSSA, established by government to provide social security to workers and pensioners.
“The scheme should have benefited workers but a number of investigations revealed that the funds were being exploited by government officials,” he said. “There were glaring loopholes in the handling of the funds and a lack of accountability, with suspicions of some people in government enriching themselves.”
Zanu (PF) sources say a number of bigwigs established empires and huge business entities through underhand transactions that helped them access funds from the NSSA and other social welfare programmes without proper accountability.
John Robertson, an independent economist, described it as “a situation characterized by chaos and a serious lack of economic discipline, which allowed for a lot of looting of funds as well as resources for a long time but gradually killing the economy”. – Next week we conclude with an assessment of the Mugabenomics system since 2000, outlining how every move the regime embarks on further dents the national economy.
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