This segment of the study was intended to establish the degree to which the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission public education on corruption had impacted on the prevalence of corruption in the country. This was a very tough question for the participants because there was no approved measuring instrument they could rely on. However, I was convinced that since all the participants came from stakeholder institutions to the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission, they had a fair understanding of the issues surrounding measuring corruption because they had the privilege of having attended stakeholder meetings as well as taking part in anti- corruption programmes including the planning and execution of public education on anti-corruption. Some of the participants had worked as facilitators in various anti- corruption education fora, therefore participants were expected to give their honest opinion on the general impact that ZACC’s public education on anti-corruption had in the period under review.
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Out of the 30 participants that I interviewed, 14 (46.7 %) were agreed that public education on anti-corruption had a tremendous effect in changing people’s behaviour towards anti-corruption. One of the interviewees commented that, ‘We have seen a great change in people’s behaviour in refusing to participate in corruption in the past five years’, (I G). In the same vein, another participant argued that:
Anti-corruption education has helped the public a lot in that the public is now aware of the ramifications of corruption and they are ready to expose any perpetrators of corruption, (I C S).
In my view less than one half of the participants argued in favour of the positive effects that had been realised as a result of anti-corruption education. This showed that 53.3 % of the participants were opposed to the idea. Thus, 16 (53.3 %) of the participants pointed out that public education on anti-corruption did not register any positive impact in terms of behavioural change. In support of the aforesaid argument, one participant commented that, ‘The prevalence of corruption is on the upward trend so how can we say anti-corruption education is changing people’s behaviour towards anti-corruption’, (I P).
Another participant also commented that:
Investigation and prosecution of corruption suspects is the only effective strategy that can quickly change people’s behaviour towards anti-corruption in Zimbabwe and not public education, (I C S).
From the contributions given by the participants I got the impression that anti- corruption education was still to make inroads in people’s lives. I also established that corruption was actually on the upward trajectory which proves that anti- corruption education did not cause a significant change in people’s behaviour.
However, I did not agree that investigation and prosecution of corruption suspects could be the only way to bring about deterrence in the commission of corruption offences. According to Joseph, (2016) public education remained a critical corruption preventive strategy while investigations and prosecution come in to punish those who do not take hid of the public education.
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The participants also pointed out that Zimbabwe had remained stuck in the bottom twenty on Transparency International and World Bank indices and rankings. This implies that Zimbabwe was among the twenty most corrupt countries globally.
Although Zimbabwe remained in the bottom twenty of the most corruption countries in the world, it could also be seen that in the last five years Zimbabwe had the worst international ranking of 163 out of 174 in the year 2012 but in the four years that followed, the country had a positive movement up the ladder to 154. This positive development could be attributed to the various anti-corruption initiatives (including public education) carried out by the ZACC and its critical stakeholders in their bid to curb run-away corruption. The participants agreed that the result could have been shared by a number of other initiatives like investigations and prosecution but more credit went to public education on corruption which was undertaken by ZACC and its critical stakeholders namely, the Zimbabwe Republic Police, Judicial Services Commission, National Prosecuting Authority, Civil Society Organisations and others.
The participants also hailed the part played by the public education on anti- corruption championed by ZACC by saying that the term ‘corruption’ has become
‘catchy’ in the sense that majority of the citizens have a better understanding of the concept than a few years back. Apart from some of the hyped causes of economic slow-down in Zimbabwe, the public was now aware of the fact that the chief causes of economic meltdown were wrong economic policies, poor international relations, economic sanctions and corruption, (Mutondoro, et al, 2015). However, all the participants agreed that corruption was the prime cause for economic failure in Zimbabwe. The participants were aware that Zimbabwe was suffering from a barrage of nepotism and politics of patronage which negatively affected the values of integrity, transparency, accountability, professionalism and meritocracy in most public offices. They pointed out that employment seekers had never been subjected to such levels of naked corruption like currently obtaining in the country. One of the participants pointed out that:
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I got shocked to learn that candidates who apply for trainee nursing posts have to pay not less than $ 2000.00 to safely go through the selection process and the practice is the same with all other trainee posts in public and private entities, (I G).
Amongst the 46.7 % participants who argued that corruption was actually evolving to an extent that the corrupt were devising new forms / types of corruption methods daily. They cited some of the most recent cyber orchestrated types of corruption perpetrated through money schemes like 4-Corner, Triple M and other financial pyramid schemes which were highly subscribed by many Zimbabwean low income- earners with the hope of boosting their financial positions. The result was that the majority of them collapsed and people lost their money to unknown national and international cyber criminals. The participants acknowledged the great job that was done by ZACC educators in conjunction with the police to educate the people against joining fraudulent money schemes.
The participants also pointed out that corruption was still rife at all ports of entry into the country and they recommended that the ZACC should not only rely on sporadic visits to the exit and entry points but rather open up offices and ensure their continued presents for educational and investigative purposes. The participants argued that the Zimbabwean borders were too porous and the corrupt were actually making better revenue than the government through illegal deals. They also reported that there were certain huge trucks that avoided passing through scanners and these were believed to be owned by high profile personalities in government. This was happening in broad day light and it was also a slap on the face of the recently gazetted Statutory Instrument 164 of 2015 which prohibited the importation of goods which Zimbabwe was capable of producing. The participants also expressed that they were convinced that some of the biggest forms of corruption were perpetrated by Red-Route users who are normally not subjected to physical inspection at the ports of entry. They argued that a lot of value was lost through the Red-Route and possibly the much-touted externalization of funds was done through it. Again, the findings here confirmed what was said earlier on in this chapter that the people who needed more of anti-corruption education were the ‘big fishes’ themselves. These findings also confirm the relevance of the Marxist theory in this study. When asked what the ZACC should do on this issue, the participants thought that since the ZACC
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was under the Office of the President and Cabinet, they could advise the President through the Chief Secretary so that the President could reign in on his ministers on these corrupt practices.
Finally, this study confirms that the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission public education has faced a lot of challenges due to lack of political will and erratic funding from Treasury. There was very little ZACC could have done to educate the whole nation without decentralising its services to provinces and districts. However, it remained a huge task for the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission to ensure that there was a reduction of corruption levels before it completely eradicate and uproot corruption among the citizens. The Commission appeared to be determined to unleash timely public education programmes to conscientise the public on various forms of corruption so that corruption would not become endemic. To realise this dream, the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission should be well funded, train its staff new skills of combating corruption and run an effective research division which informs public education on the recent developments in matters surrounding corruption and anti-corruption.