When mafia Nyikayaramba talk of "security threat" he is threatening you. By Nomusa Garikai

"It (corruption) is now a security threat because it is causing people to create mafias or alliances where if one is accused of being corrupt, he quickly asks for the help of other big names to protect him or her,” Chief of Staff Administration Major General Douglas Nyikayaramba told a Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Defence and Security.

"The ordinary citizens expect authorities to address these issues, but then if they see nothing happening to the alleged criminals, they will end up being ungovernable and creating problems for the defence forces.

"Development is being derailed so that individuals can benefit at the expense of the whole nation."

Yes, it is the same Major General Nyikayaramba who swore just before the 2008 elections that he would never “salute anyone with no liberation war credentials!” A serious treasonous act in its own right.

As for his condemnation of corruption, Nyikayamba could only fool the fools because the Zimbabwe’s security sector involvement in the looting of Marange diamonds is an open secret. Professor Jonathan Moyo, whose $400 000 fraud case is the hot news at present and one of the “big names” Nyikayaramba was talking about, knows only too well of the Army’s looting and was quick to remind the errand Major General.

“Nyikayaramba said corruption is a major security threat. Unravel and uncover missing $15 billion,” challenged the “nutty” Professor.

The truth is the nutty Professor, the treasonous Major General and all the other corrupt cronies up and down the country are all extremely nervous about even some truth on corruption coming out in the public domain for two reasons:

1)   they all know that if the whole truth about Professor Moyo’s looting was to come out, for example, they would have opened the flood gates for details in other cases of corruption to come out. You throw someone like Professor Moyo to the wolves and you can be sure of one thing they will not want to go down alone, they have collected a lot of detailed information of other people’s corrupt activities and will sing like a canary to save their skin or just for the hell of it.

2)   Once people know the truth on some corrupt activity then, as day follows night, they will be demanding that the corruption be stopped immediately and that no stone should be left unturned to recover the loot and punish the guilt. So those who had benefited from the corrupt activity will not just have their source of easy wealth turned off but, worst of all, facing tough payback time.

For the last 36 years President Mugabe has steadfastly denied that corruption was a problem in the country. He attributed the country’s poor economic performance on the drought, the targeted sanctions imposed by the West, etc.; corruption was never ever mention. By pretending corrupt was not a problem the regime has allowed it the space and time to grow and spread to the deadly killer cancer it is today.

Zimbabwe is facing serious economic meltdown, unemployment has soared to 90% plus, public health and education have all but collapsed due to poor funding, government is failing to pay civil servants, etc. And yet the nation continues to lose billions of dollars every month through the now institutionalized looting spree.

Not even a wealthy nation like the USA with a GDP of $18 trillion can sustain the massive hemorrhaging of $15 billion through corruption what more Zimbabwe’s a GPD of $14 billion!

Zimbabwe has no chance of ever ending the serious economic meltdown it is facing today without first ending the rampant corruption!

It is great that people like Major General Nyikayaramba now publicly acknowledge that where corruption has been allowed to grow and spread unchecked for decades those involved often gang up into mafia syndicates because that is exactly what has happened in Zimbabwe. We have mafia thugs in the Police, Army, ZEC, parastatals like ZESA and Air Zimbabwe, etc. and with the Godfather housed in State House.

Nyikayaramba is also right in saying corruption in now a serious security threat to the nation. Since the state security is in the hands of the Mafia gangsters like him who are sworn to maintain the corrupt status quo at all cost, on the one hand. On the other hand, the corruption has produced the serious economic meltdown which is socially and politically unsustainable.

The nation is already walking on the knife edge of economic collapse and social upheaval because of the economic meltdown brought on by the decades of corruption. To do nothing about ending the corruption will tip the nation over the edge. The only reason why the nation has done nothing about ending the corruption all these last 36 years is because the mafia Zanu PF regime has always threatened the nation with carefully Zanu PF orchestrated security problems.

For 36 years we have allowed people like the corrupt Professor Moyo, treasonous Major General Nyikayaramba, the corrupt and murderous Mugabe and the rest of the Zanu PF mafia thugs hold the nation to ransom; we were to allow them to loot the nation blind or they will instigate nationwide lawlessness. They have looted the nation blind alright, they are robbing us of our human dignity and even the bear necessities of life, and yet they still demand more! The question is how much longer are we going to allow this madness to continue?