Corruption, a stone's throw away from being a norm!

It is quite sad to note that society is slowly condoning corruption as a typical way of life in Zimbabwe. We are getting used to watching a combi driver pay $3 to the police officers on the roadblock and well, life goes on! Yet if we look closely at how the rate at which corruption levels across the country are skyrocketing, it is evidently sensible to conclude that unless we are able to graduate our view of corruption from just the transaction between a motorist driver and a traffic police officer into the system that instructs the road traffic wing to deploy a road block then we remain ignorant to the root cause of that particular form of corruption.

Principally, a roadblock is mounted for security reasons, crime detection, prevention and investigations. Theoretically speaking, that kind of regulatory intention makes sense right? But if we zoom in on the practical existence of roadblocks we will discover that this is just a cover up for what is actually happening on the ground. To start with, roadblocks must be established in order to serve a purpose closely related to a particular problem associated with automobiles and their mobility. The first sensible problem one can handpick from the endless list is the rising concern of private cars carrying passengers for private gain when in actual fact they are not licenced to. To ensure the safety of the ‘apparently ignorant’ public who choose to ride on these cars, the road traffic police installs a roadblock. Now, the loophole in that legal system, which distinctly abbreviates it as ground for corruption is that, firstly, the pirate taxi is fined a spot fine for violating the Road Traffic Regulation and then surprisingly allowed to proceed to its intended destination. Clearly the roadblock stands as nothing but a point of dollar exchange because the so called public whose safety is being ensured remains to travel in that same car. This conduct spells out nothing but the abuse of entrusted power for private gain, that is, corruption.

Ii is highly amusing that a motorist is fined for driving without a licence. I mean how is one expected to have a licence when people are intentionally being failed the oral test unless and until they offer a bribe? Does it mean that people should be allowed to drive without licences? NO! Yet the rife corruption experienced at the VID everyday nudges people to even more lawlessness than would otherwise exist had there been no traces of corruption. Most ridiculously so, the Road Traffic Police would much rather have a motorist hand over a few bucks than present a valid licence. This can strongly be affirmed by the queer fact that on any roadblock I have had the chance of going through as a passenger in a public omnibus, the driver, upon being stopped on a roadblock, impulsively jumps out of the vehicle, with nothing on his hand but the customary $3 bribe. As an observant passenger, it does not take me a second’s thought to realise that the driver has no licence or at least something about the vehicle is amiss. So it then beats me as odd because the roadblock is meant to ensure the safe condition of automobiles not netting dollar notes without even an attempt at checking the vehicle. It all boils down to nothing but violation of principle- corruption.

Now, it is inevitably tempting to think that the motorist and the police officer are the only perpetrators of corruption in the instances mentioned above but the truth is, we, the passengers, are also fuelling its existence by failing to speak against it. Corruption is simply society watching the abuse of moral systems and choosing to look away. You might not be the one paying the bribe but if the vehicle is not properly checked your safety is not guaranteed and your money is feeding corrupt members of the law. Corruption is who the system is turning us into and the question that stands then is, “If corruption is happening everywhere and by big wigs of the law then should we, the society then brood on the so-called little corrupt activities that so much flood our communities today?”

Quite annoyingly, people have this bad habit of reacting to things based on whether they negatively affect them or not. If someone is benefitting from acts of corruption they would do anything to protect themselves, that is, perpetrate more corruption by silencing responsible authorities who might otherwise expose them. At the end it merely becomes an unbreakable cycle of greed and corruption. It also becomes unfair to drop the bomb of corruption on just those benefitting because those who do not benefit and apparently feel that it doesn’t affect them are also responsible for the existence of corruption because they condone it; looking away whenever it happens in their faces. Truth is, as much as you may not want to face it, any act of corruption in society affects everyone. Opportunities get trapped on nepotistic selections and economic advantage remains inclined to those who speak through their wallets. These are the people who truly cripple efforts of curbing this economically and morally degrading monster.

With this level of realisation it is only evident that if we are to curb corruption then we all, at individual level, have to resolve to take a stand against it. Young people have the energy and innovative intellect to simplify and advocate against the seemingly complex phenomenon of corruption and the elders have unparalleled wisdom and experience to uproot corruption. Together we have the capacity to sterilize Zimbabwe of corruption and rebuild our moral standards. It begins with you…!