AMID the cleansing currently taking place in the ruling ZANU PF, an interesting development that may have escaped the eye of the media is the struggle currently confronting one of the women who unsuccessfully tried to coerce the international community to topple President Robert Mugabe a few years ago.
This woman, called Anna Tibaijuka, the Tanzanian and former Director of the United Nations (UN) Habitat, is battling for her survival as Minister of Lands in her country after being implicated in a multi-million dollar energy sector graft scandal.
However, the most significant fact in all these shenanigans is that Robert Mugabe will remain the last man standing because of his genius.
In 2005 Tibaijuka made headlines for the wrong reasons when she produced a biased report on the Government of Zimbabwe’s resoundingly successful Operation Murambatsvina.
But in her report, Tibaijuka claimed that “the slum clearance actions carried out by the Zimbabwean government rendered
700 000 people homeless and deprived more than 2 million of their livelihood.”
She revealed that she used mathematical formulae not real assessment to come up with her figure of 700 000 people that she said were affected by the clean-up operation.
Official figures released by the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) showed that by June 28 2005 when the clean-up operation winded down, only 50 193 illegal structures had been demolished in all 10 provinces.
It is important to note that the word ‘structures’ included both illegal tuckshops, shacks, houses, flea markets and market stalls.
Hence the number of illegally built houses was much lower than this figure and they could never have housed the 223 000 people claimed by the United States State Department which supported Tibaijuka’s report of shame.
What miffed the Government was that non-governmental organisations (NGOs) like the Girl Child Network that wanted to buttress their project proposals to access funds to ‘assist’ the victims supplied the astronomical figures.
The Girl Child Network (GCN), subsequently received US$18 000 to curb human trafficking in Zimbabwe, and GCN director Betty Makoni was quoted in the US embassy statement saying, “Thousands of women and girls are trafficked from rural to urban areas, from Zimbabwe to neighbouring countries and across oceans.
“Their stories are sad and horrifying yet in Zimbabwe there is silence about this issue.”
The reports attributed to GCN claimed that Operation Murambatsvina targeted women and children.
It is such claims that are not backed by evidence that are used by detractors to demonise Zimbabwe and of course by the NGO community to line their pockets.
In August 2006, a devastating storm, Hurricane Katrina, wreaked havoc on the southern states of the US, destroying at least 689 000 homes and businesses across Mississippi and Louisiana — most of these victims are still homeless today.
As much as the hurricane was a natural phenomenon, it was man-made in that the US policies of exclusion settled black people dangerously close to the hurricane-prone coast.
Yet in Zimbabwe a commission was appointed by Ignatious Chombo, the then Minister of Local Government, Public Works and Urban Development to oversee the aftermath of Operation Murambatsvina through a housing scheme Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle.
President Mugabe had pointed out that the clearances are needed to carry out ‘a vigorous clean-up campaign to restore sanity’ and he described the programme as an ‘urban renewal campaign’.
Minister Chombo described the operation in terms of ‘restoring order’.
“It is these people who have been making the country ungovernable by their criminal activities actually.”
Fast forward to 2014.
Reports from Tanzania indicate that the country’s Members of Parliament have called for the sacking of several top officials including two cabinet ministers implicated in multi-million dollar energy sector graft scandal.
In a vote conducted last Saturday, the east African nation’s parliament voted for the immediate dismissal of Attorney General Frederick Werema, Energy Minister Sospeter Muhongo, Lands Minister Anna Tibaijuka and the energy ministry’s permanent secretary, Eliakim Maswi.
The vote followed an audit that uncovered the fraudulent payment of around US$120 million in state funds to a private company.
“Following a recent audit there is evidence that the officials facilitated or aided money laundering, tax evasion, corrupt acts and outright theft of billions of shillings from public coffers,” said Zitto Kabwe, chairman of the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee.
“All those named to have received part of the ill-gotten cash must be probed and prosecuted,” Kabwe said.
It is clear from the above that those who live by deception will be consumed by deception.
Tibaijuka’s fate has been borne out of a lie about President Mugabe that she sold to the world, but Mugabe’s genius has made him the last man to remain standing.
As he slowly realigns his party ideologically, those who gained through soiling his name are being consumed by fate.
Let those with ears listen.