Wealth of reasons to cut out corruption

THE daughter of dead tyrant Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Bona Mugabe, is filing for divorce from her husband Simbarashe Chikore, a former airline pilot. So what, we all cry in unison.

Interesting in that the papers filed reveal at last the hidden and staggering wealth of the so-called Marxist. At the time of his death a few years ago at 95, it was never revealed what he left to his wife Grace.

Not surprisingly the figures disclosed by Mr Chikore show Mugabe swindled the Zimbabwean people out of millions and millions.

These included a mansion in Dubai, dozens of confiscated “white” farms, an £8million palace, a £640,000 Rolls-Royce and more than £10million in cash. In other words, he swindled and swindled while pretending to be a man of the people. Under Mugabe, inset, Zimbabwe, once the grain capital of Africa, was reduced to toilet-paper currency and hunger.

Some say the scourges of subSaharan Africa are hunger, disease and violence. In truth the real scourge is corruption at every level of officialdom – governmental, administrative and legal – right across the continent. This is why none of the wealth generated by oil and crops, or donated ever reaches the people, who toil on in poverty.

I recall sitting over a flask of palm wine with a middle-aged man in Northern Ghana discussing the departed British Empire, now vilified far and wide. “We have not had one court verdict that was not purchased since your people left,” he told me.

What he meant was that if a matter at dispute came to court, the richer petitioner slipped a fat wad to the judge and the verdict was his.

“I’ll say this for you Brits,” he concluded. “You never took bribes.” I’ll settle for that.

■ AS THE Tories wail over their dire results from the local elections, the tendency is to blame Rishi Sunak.

As with most things in politics this is grossly unfair. The steady degeneration of Conservative fortunes and our country, which are parallel yet linked, began not under him nor Liz Truss but during Covid under Boris Johnson, something his passionate fans refuse to acknowledge.

Tory fortunes are still salvageable but with just 15 months until a mandatory general election, time is short and the clock is ticking. The PM needs to show the drive of Thatcherite ruthlessness. Has he got it? I fear not.

He would have to take on and crush the bureaucratic blob of red tape that drives us down; divert the saved money to lowering taxes and putting the City of London, the Square Mile, back to work to generate wealth; abolish vanity projects like net-zero by 2035 and HS2 which will be available about the time electric air taxis mean they don’t need it any more.

It’s quite a lot against jobsworth opposition, but alas he ain’t Thatcher.

Still, with Keir Starmer all over the place and the Scots Nats committing collective suicide, the next election remains one big question mark.