5.7 The expected role of critical stakeholders in anti-corruption education
5.7.1 Government of Zimbabwe
All the participants agreed that the government should be fully responsible for creating a conducive environment for the amplification of all anti-corruption education programmes. The participants also concurred that for a start, anti-corruption education should be compulsory to all public service employees on entry into the service and then continuously after confirmation of employment contracts. In support of the later, one participant pointed out that:
All new entrants to government institutions must undergo an anti- corruption orientation and should be continuously staff developed during their period of employment, (I G).
In my view, the participants were advocating for compulsory anti-corruption education to all the public service employees so that the workers would be constantly updated on corruption preventive measures. The participants were also agreed that the government should not consider employing anybody who had been convicted of a corruption offence. They recommended that all candidates willing to compete for political posts should undergo security vetting and be dissuaded to participate in elections if they are found to have a criminal record. Those who are found to be corrupt should never be given a second chance. They went further to suggest that if a cabinet minister is suspected of being corrupt, he / she must be suspended from duty until he / she is cleared by the courts of law. They thought that such a stance eventually motivates cabinet ministers and all government employees to seriously encourage staff to participate in anti-corruption education in their departments. The findings are in line with Giddens, (2011) who said that parts of a
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given society need to work together just like the parts of a human body do for the benefit of the whole society.
The participants also raised the issue that the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission public education on anti-corruption is poorly funded to the extent that even well-planned educational programmes fail to take off the ground. They gave examples of some of the educational meetings which ZACC had arranged and advertised, but failed due to budgetary constraints. These included meetings with Zimbabwe Republic Police in Mashonaland East province, Harare and Chitungwiza Ministry of Youth officers, residents’ associations in Harare, trainee teachers in all teachers’ colleges just to mention a few. Therefore, the participants urged government to assist in sourcing material support from development partners like United Nations Development Programme, European Union and others to enable the ZACC to meet its public education obligations throughout the country.
Most of the participants agreed that the government should mainstream anti- corruption education into all its structures and processes as a way to improve service delivery to the public and also raise stakes for compliance in all public service points.
To this end, one participant commented that:
Corruption is a social and economic problem which needs to be prevented if a country is guaranteed to develop. It follows that the government should prioritise anti-corruption education in order to raise public awareness as well as educating the public on strategies to prevent corruption, (I P).
It is at the backdrop of this analysis that participants felt that anti-corruption education is more than just a want but a need if Zimbabwe is to restore its enviable culture of hard work and become a global player in trade and development. This point was equally shared by Sarmini, et (2018) who pointed out that we need to educate our people on anti-corruption so that we break the wrong culture of inculcating bad norms and values which characterise the general behaviour of the product of our school system. This means that if Zimbabwe is able to reduce on its corruption perception index, it then puts the country at a better pedestal to attract investment which in turn assists in the revival of industry and the creation of job opportunities.
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The participants also went further to highlight that the government of Zimbabwe needs to borrow some good practices from other jurisdictions where public education on anti-corruption had proved to be successful. They cited the examples of Japan where it was government policy that every entrant into any public service job should undergo anti-corruption orientation before signing an employment contract. The efficiency of the Japanese anti-corruption system was believed to be one of the best globally. To this end, one of the participants argued that:
The Japanese have an effective anti-corruption public education, well- oiled investigations machinery with arresting powers and efficient courts that pass deterrent sentences such that very few people aspire to be corrupt, (I C S).
I take the view that the Japanese strategy of combating corruption offers a good template for developing countries like Zimbabwe to improve on educating the public on anti-corruption. This was also supported by a participant who suggested that:
Government can host seminars and workshops on anti-corruption for its different departments, however, unless all the permanent secretaries are compelled to lead by example, most employees will always have excuses for not attending, (I G).
Finally, government should reign in on its traditional leadership (chiefs, village heads) who are in the habit of demanding bribes even for the smallest things like availing themselves to their subjects. Since the traditional leadership is on government pay roll already, the participants felt that it is criminal for them to ask for bribes in form of cattle, goats, chicken and money from their subjects. They argued that it was not a Zimbabwean culture to fleece others, instead chiefs were known to feed the poor and strangers in the past which implied that they were not driven by greedy but they exemplified ethical and dignified servant leadership while the Zunde Ramambo (Feeding programme for the poor and destitute) concept depicted that traditional leaders were selfless and caring for the strangers and homeless.
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