By Dr. Raymond Chamba | When institutional and constitutional capture ensures immunity for select individuals, new methods of holding them accountable become necessary. In Zimbabwe, a continuous stream of clear public corruption cases, shielded by high-level political protection, calls for collective and innovative ways to combat this at both local and global scales.
An online database that accepts, researches, catalogs, and curates reported cases of corruption urgently needs to be established. This should be a natural extension of the efforts of numerous dedicated professionals, activists, and conscientious private citizens who witness bad governance and defend victims both domestically and internationally.
These legal resources should be compiled to facilitate private prosecutions, class action lawsuits, and extended calls for action against banks and other commercial entities implicated in the local, regional, and global web of criminality. The money trail of laundering, tax evasion, human trafficking, drug dealing, subversion of democratic processes like elections, and the sponsorship of acts of terror requires collective action.
This online resource would feature global money movement alerts, relationship web indicators, and active movement pointers for key persons of interest. Tools available for local and global action would include reporting to appropriate law enforcement agencies, citizen arrests, and potential special executive actions mandated by the severity of crimes.
Perpetrators of gross crimes against the people through the pillaging of national resources need to be broadly and clearly publicized, with substantial rewards posted for their apprehension. A “Public Deplorables” deck of cards should be created to extend the reach of anti-corruption information. We cannot allow those who plunder vast national resources without legal repercussions to flaunt their ill-gotten gains publicly. It’s time for a significant payback.
It’s evident that most perpetrators of high national crimes and misdemeanors seek to impress the very public they have wronged. This cannot continue without collective action against the severe damage to our national resources, treasury, and stunted human development. If people can employ bands of private justice executors for relatively petty individual disputes, the public’s collective anger must be harnessed to ensure swift justice. The time to act is now.
In the pursuit of restorative justice, sequestered funds and assets across different jurisdictions need to be consolidated into a compensation fund for the many victims of gross human rights abuses in Zimbabwe, including but not limited to the Gukurahundi massacres. The financial crimes created and protected at the highest levels constitute a clear and absolute form of terror against the common citizens of Zimbabwe.
This phenomenon can be seen as an extended form of Gukurahundi, aiming to cause widespread poverty and assured destitution for all citizens. It is a calculated effort to suffocate and force the surrender of the people’s will to demand protection of their basic human rights. As people become impoverished and selectively favored, their capacity to demand justice diminishes, reducing them to hunters and gatherers for basic survival.
The structured mass looting, planned and executed with financial genocidal intent, is evident. The significant migration out of the country, driven by this massive deprivation of public resources, speaks volumes. Only crowd-funded global justice will bring this corruption pandemic to a halt.
Every action matters. Every report contributes to remedial responses. There is an urgent need to support the framework for a Zimbabwe we demand by engaging in a smart, incisive information exchange on grand corruption activities and perpetrators. Corruption thrives in silence and inaction. It’s time to reclaim our country through a collective, meticulous response that suffocates the financial, asset, and human movement privileges of the egregiously corrupt.
Document clear cases of corruption, distribute the information, deliver perpetrators to justice, and, where necessary, enforce decisive action against known repeat offenders. We have a responsibility and opportunity through smart action and collective response to arrest the decline of our once-great nation into a haven for politically and government-supported criminal syndicates. The time for a crowd-funded, decisive response against criminal syndicates is now. Anything less, and we risk having no country left to save.
A global financial platform is prepared with USD $5 million in seed capital to support and help establish the infrastructure for collective justice against endemic corruption. It will match every public donation to an institutional framework created by human rights defenders, anti-corruption activists, concerned citizens, and corporations. It’s time to mobilize in defense of our great nation from the clutches of financial and political Gukurahundists among us.
BATAI VANHU TIKUPEI MARI
DZIMBAHWE
Dr. Raymond Chamba