Youth Transparency School on corruption comes to Lupane
Thembelihle Mhlanga
Lupane Youth for Development Trust (LUYDT) in collaboration with National Association of Youth Organizations (NAYO) held a Youth Transparency School Thursday in Lupane.
Speaking at the school the LUYDT Programmes Coordinator, Tawanda Mazango said youth are an important sector of the citizenry particularly on issues of demanding social accountability.
He told the participating youths that the alarming corruption index in the country can only be contained if only the young citizens participate in efforts to contain corruption by demanding transparency and accountability from duty bearers to try to curb this corruption contagion that has invaded Zimbabwe.
Mazango noted that young people bear the hard-hitting results of the corruption practices, adding that tertiary students suffer as corruption devalues their academics.
“You might temporarilly benefit from the proceeds of corruption but that has a long-term and far-reaching effect as it reduces opportunities for other citizens,” said Mazango.
One participant Meluleki Mpofu, a student from Lupane State University said sometimes corruption can be a case of the end justifying the means. He gave an example of paying a bribe to the police to avoid a criminal record.
“Sometimes we engage in corruption for a good cause to avoid dire and permanent consequences”, said Mpofu.
Patience Ngwenya said it is high time the young people held duty bearers accountable if the nation is to salvage anything from what remains of the country after enduring so much corruption over the years.
“Its high time we as youths bring the duty bearers to count and try to reduce corrupt activities. We must demand that the duty bearers strive to be transparent in the execution of their mandated duty,” said Ngwenya.
Programmes Coordinator for NAYO, Macdonald Munyoro said the government of Zimbabwe in its blueprint, the National Development Strategy 1(NDS1) emphasizes on the eradication and zero tolerance to corruption.
“The NDS document state that the govt has zero tolerance to corruption and has empowered such organs as Zimbabwe Anti- Corruption Commission (ZACC) and National Prosecution Authority (NPA) to investigate and prosecute those caught on the wrong side,” said Munyoro.
Recently ZACC stated that it had recovered assets worth one hundred million United States dollars from corrupt individuals and organisations. However, the anti-corruption body has been accused of doing very little to deal with widespread and institutionalised corruption in the country.
On Transparency International’s 2022 Corruption Perceptions Index, Zimbabwe scored 23 on a scale from 0 (“highly corrupt”) to 100 (“very clean”). When ranked by score, Zimbabwe ranked 157th among the 180 countries in the Index, where the country ranked last is perceived to have the most corrupt public sector.
