ZIMBABWE Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) vice-president Valentine Chikosi has said government should protect citizens from corruption, since if is causing untold suffering to ordinary people.
Speaking last week in Gweru on the sidelines of the ZCTU central region Workers' Day commemorations, Chikosi said as a labour body, they were worried that corruption continued to be institutionalised and formalised, bleeding the economy.
“We are worried as workers about the continued institutionalisation and formalisation of corruption through tenderpreneurship, through the impunity that people who are beneficiaries of ill-got business are openly flaunting and declaring proceeds of corruption,” Chikosi said.
“We are, therefore, saying that the government, as the custodian of every citizen in this country, must protect the society from corrupt tendencies. Corruption is rampant in the public sector and even private sector, but it is our conviction that it is mainly happening within government institutions, government business, government transactions and government tenders.”
He said it was disheartening that government had allowed corruption to be “normalised and glorified”, a situation that has slowed the revival of the ailing economy.
“As workers, we feel corruption is bleeding the economy. The economy is supposed to be on a recovery path, but it cannot when billions of dollars meant to resuscitate it are channelled towards a few individuals involved in corrupt activities.
“As workers, our cry is that we could have been in a better state had government put a nip to corruption. This rot has a direct impact on our conditions of service, our welfare and general labour rights,” Chikosi said.
Chikosi said government officials were implicated in high-profile illicit business transactions, with no action taken against them.
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He said if government was serious about taming corruption, money lost to graft could have been used to improve the health and education sectors, rehabilitation of infrastructure like roads, railway and electricity, among other key areas of the economy.
