ZISCO threatened with collapse due to corruption and mismanagement

By Violet Gonda
21 November 2006

The wholesale looting of Zimbabwe’s steel making company ZISCO has shown how the ruling elite is destroying Zimbabwe’s assets, along with the country. At one stage ZISCO was a major foreign currency earner but senior government officials are among the many who have plundered the company. Journalist Dumisani Muleya says the company is operating below 30%, as it has been a victim of extended gross mismanagement and looting by public officials who have been raiding it since 1980.

He said; “It’s a company that is almost a billboard of the incompetence and the corruption that has characterised the ZANU PF regime since it came to power.”

A confidential report compiled by the National Economic Conduct Inspectorate linked Vice-president Joyce Mujuru and co-Vice-President Joseph Msika in the corruption scandal. According to Muleya the report says Mujuru was paid US$11 000 as allowances by ZISCO subsidiary in Botswana, Ramotswa/Tswana Iron & Steel, on October 4 2003. She also received 30 000 litres of fuel from ZISCO for her celebrations after she was elected vice-president in 2004.

Although the report also named Msika, supporting documents as to whether he got something or not were not available to the investigation team. Other beneficiaries named include Higher Education Minister Stan Mudenge and Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa, although documents were also not made available to investigators.
Prominent cabinet Ministers Samuel Mumbengegwi, Olivia Muchena and Sithembiso Nyoni are also mentioned in the report as some of those who could have benefited from the generous handouts from the government-owned company.
Names repeatedly mentioned are also those involved in the management of the company, including former managing director Dr Gabriel Masanga.

The systematic looting of the public asset extended beyond the borders of Zimbabwe and included Botswana, South Africa and Asia.
The journalist said that corruption has created a situation in which the company is hardly a viable entity, certainly in comparison to the levels of operation during the Rhodesian era when it helped sustain the Rhodesian war. But because of the extended period of looting it is now a pale shadow of its former self.

Muleya who has written several articles exposing this major scandal said this is one example of how parastatals, including the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority, the National Railways of Zimbabwe and Zimbabwe United Passenger Company “are victims of gross mismanagement and corruption and clearly a result of the corporate culture that was created by the current government.” He said general incompetence and inefficiency were the order of the day.

It’s reported the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe tried to deal with the ZISCO problem by pumping in trillions of Zimbabwean dollars but authorities soon discovered that this would not help unless there was a complete overhaul of those structures.

It now waits to be seen what the Mugabe government is going to do with the culprits, as the findings of the NECI report has put the regime in the spotlight.

Meanwhile speculation is rife that Minister Obert Mpofu may become a casualty of the ZISCO scandal as he faces impeachment for lying in parliament under oath. ZISCO falls under Mpofu’s Ministry of Trade and Industry.

The full interview with Dumisani Muleya can be heard on the programme Hot Seat Tuesday.