Protect whistleblowers, not thieves
LAST year, President Emmerson Mnangagwa ordered the reinstatement of Zesa employees who had been fired for whistleblowing corruption at the power utility. The eight had been charged with breaching the Official Secrets Act by exposing graft at Zesa.
And on Tuesday, NewsDay reported that Gokwe councillor Davies Taruvinga, a whistleblower in a case that was being investigated by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc), was picked up by police for questioning on trumped-up charges after reporting corrupt activities at the Midlands local authority.
He told the media that some council officials had roped in State security agents to harass him after lifting the lid on corrupt activities at Gokwe Town Council.
“I see this as an attack on the anti-corruption fight and intimidatory tactics. I feel the police are being used to suppress this fight. We have reported cases of corruption at Gokwe council before, but the police were reluctant to act and we suspect that money was changing hands. We then approached Zacc with the help of some independent anti-corruption organisations which successfully instituted investigations, leading to the discovery of the looting of council funds and subsequent arrests of these officials,”Taruvinga said.
The practice of blowing the whistle is probably as old as humanity itself.
Former Mines minister Obert Mpofu was generously rewarded by the government after playing the whistleblower role in the infamous 1988 Willowgate scandal. Mpofu allegedly leaked a juicy document to the then Chronicle editor Geoff Nyarota, which exposed how top government officials were being given preference in buying cars at Willowvale Motor Industries at discounted prices and reselling them at inflated prices.
With his allowances withheld, Taruvinga is paying the price of doing a service to the nation. That there is no credible legislative framework to protect whistleblowers, let alone incentives, is evidence enough that Zimbabwe is running at a standstill in the fight against corruption. With such loopholes, it is unlikely that the country is going to tame the corruption monster.
The vacuous utterances by President Emmerson Mnangagwa that the new dispensation has a zero tolerance policy on corruption are by and large an insult to Zimbabweans when whistleblowers are being haunted for their kind gestures.
Fighting corruption is a hard task, but it is achievable only if the law, supreme as it must be, is upheld by everyone.
In fighting corruption, a three-legged approach anchored on prevention, public awareness and enforcement must be universally accepted. Zimbabwe is glaringly found wanting on prevention, education and enforcing the law.
Protecting those who blow the horn on graft and enforcing codes of conduct, good corporate governance principles, conflict of interest rules and declaration of assets by public officials is the way to go in preventing corruption.
But such endeavours require the public buy-in. The public should be an accessory in all the pillars, especially on enforcement. The idea is to strengthen the citizens’ participation and resolve to resist, condemn and report corruption. The public should be active as policing agents in the fight against corruption. But if whistleblowers are harassed, this would see corruption flourishing as the public adopts an “it is none of my business” mentality. This is not only counterproductive, but also self-defeating.
Just like fighting the coronavirus pandemic, the fight against corruption should be given the seriousness and urgency it deserves.
As we speak, Parliament must be seized with enacting a law in the mould of Whistleblower Protection Act in order to enhance the fight against corruption. Such a law would provide for the establishment of an agency whose purpose would be to oversee the operationalisation and implementation of the Act. Whistleblowers such as Taruvinga should be given support, protection and rewarded for their efforts to expose sleaze.