In failed States such as Zimbabwe, the State becomes an arena and vehicle for personal aggrandisement.

Not only that, the State and the economy are cannibalised and vulturised through a systematic and well-oiled machinery of asset-stripping. Indeed, in present-day Zimbabwe, patronage, clientelism and rent-seeking activities have become a national religion.

It is an indictment on the regime that 26 years after independence, Zimbabwe is now ranked one of the most corrupt countries in the world, with a ranking of 159 out of the most corrupt states.

The International Anti-Corruption Index gives Zimbabwe the henous index of 2.6 which in the SADC region is only "bettered" by the DRC. In reality, this means thatonly 20 cents out of every $1 paid by the taxpayer is used for legitimate national causes. The rest is haemorraged through overt and covert acts of corruption.

The recent revelations at Ziscosteel in which the country's two vice Presidents and other ministers have been named and shamed, reflects a crudity in the magnitude of corruption in Zimbabwe. It representative primitive accumulation without standard, without national objective, without rationale and without morality. The looting of funds and the bribery scams at ZUPCO are an ugly reflection of this unmitigated aggrandisement.

The importation of fake fertiliser, the pruchase of useless and substandard aircraft from China are all reflections of the self-sustaining madness and momentum of this corruption, a momentum and force which leaves no one in government innocent.

The land reform programme has been nothing but a massive transfer of assets to cronies and proxies of the ruling regime. The importation of fuel has become an arena in which Zanu PF sharks swim at each others' throats. All major parastatals, in particular GMB, NOCZIM, NRZ, ZINWA, ARDA, Air Zimbabwe, Net One and TelOne, have become "automated teller machines" (ATM). Of these ATMs probably, the biggest one is the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ).

Local authorities, chief among them the city of Harare, have traditionally proved to be the hunting grounds of the ruling elite. They have thus taken a double battering from corrupt councils and residents in the allocation of stands and other services.

The most disturbing element about corruption in Zimbabwe is that it has undermined the value of education and clean hard work ethics. The youths watch daily as as lazy, incompetent and corrupt people make it to the top of the social ladder through patronage and clientelism and not through education and hard work. This complete Zanunisation of the moral fabric of our society, more than the state of the economy and the barbaric murders of the innocent over the years, will remain Robert Mugabe's biggest dislegacy.

Equally unacceptable is the culture of impunity that exists in the State. The kleptocratic State does not have the political will and technical capacity of dealing with corruption. The thousands who have looted farms, the War Victims Compensation Fund, the Pay for Your House Scheme and the diamonds in the Democratic Republic of the Congo continue to roam the country in their air-conditioned Mercedes Benzes.

The Anti-Corruption Commission is a lame duck legally defined to be impotent and further disabled by ;ack of independence and institutional resources.

As the MDC, it is our firm belief that the only way to deal with corruption is by addressing the political question first. Zanu PF is corruption itself and the only solution is a new, democratic Constituion, followed by free and fair elections under international supervision. Without this, not only will corruption multiply, but so too will the deterioration of the State and the slow death of the same.