The findings of a 2000 survey commissioned by Transparency International Zimbabwe found that Zimbabwean citizens regarded the public sector as the most corrupt sector in the country. In this survey respondents favoured the police as being most corrupt followed by political parties, parliament/legislature, public officials/civil servants and the judiciary. In 2008, a Transparency International director announced that Zimbabwe loses US$5 million to corruption every day. A 2016 Transparency International Report says the country is losing at least $1 billion annually to corruption, with police and local government officials among the worst offenders.
In 2011, Finance Minister Tendai Biti claimed that at least US$1 billion in diamond-related revenue owed to the national treasury remains unaccounted for. Biti has blamed corruption, misappropriation and a lack of transparency for the systematic underselling of diamonds and the failure to recoup losses. In an address to parliament, Biti said “it is worrying that there is no connection whatsoever between diamond exports made by Zimbabwe and the revenues realised thereof”.
President Robert Mugabe and his politburo have also come under criticism for making personal benefits by assigning lucrative concessions in the Marange diamond fields to Chinese firms and the Zimbabwean military. The Zimbabwean military, which oversees the Marange fields, has been accused of systematic human rights abuses and smuggling of diamonds to neighbouring Mozambique.
In March 2008, President Mugabe formally approved the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Bill, which gave the government the right to seize a controlling 51% stake in foreign and white-owned businesses. There are wide concerns that the beneficiaries of this Bill will be members of the ruling Zimbabwean elite, particularly after the enforcement of the Land Acquisition Act of 1992 and the Land Reform and Resettlement Programme Phase 2 of 1998 led to the misappropriation of commercial farm land and violent land invasions.
Here is a list of ‘reported corruption scandals’ in Zimbabwe since 1980:
- 1987 – Zisco Steel blast Furnace Scandal
- 1987 – Air Zimbabwe Fokker Plane Scandal – $ 100 million
- 1986 – National Railways Housing Scandal
- 1988 – Willowgate Scandal
- 1989 – ZRP Santana Scandal
- 1994 – War Victims Compensation Scandal
- 1995 – GMB Grain Scandal
- 1996 – VIP Housing Scandal
- 1998 – Boka Banking Scandal
- 1998 – ZESA YTL Soltran Scandal
- 1998 – Telecel Scandal
- 1998 – Harare City Council Refuse Tender Scandal
- 1999 – Housing Loan Scandal
- 1999 – Noczim Scandal
- 1999 – DRC timber and diamond Un reported scandals
- 1999 – GMB Scandal
- 1999 – Ministry of water and rural development Chinese tender scandal
- 1999 – VIP Land Grab Scandal
- 2001 – Harare Airport Scandal
- 2008-2014 – Airport Road Scandal
- 2016 – Mnangagwa Command Agriculture Scandal
- 2018 -Zesa scam Involving Samuel Undenge’s criminal abuse of office
Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_in_Zimbabwe