guest column:Anadi Arnold Sululu I WAS following social media postings in the past few weeks, where cases of corruption allegations in South Africa and Zimbabwe, among other African countries, were exploding. It jolted me to revisit a chapter on corruption in an unfinished book which I am currently penning. The recommendations I earlier made gave me an urge to ignite talk about corrupt practices, and stimulate debate with a view to finding a lasting solution to this vice. In 2012, then President Robert Mugabe stunned the whole nation when he announced that US$15 billion of Zimbabwe’s diamond revenue had gone missing. I was baffled. I realised that the old man had guts to tell fellow citizens such depressing news when the majority of the people were already distressed by poverty. Many tough-minded critics asked questions and raised their voices high, but no action has been taken — either to follow up on these damaging allegations, or to check if any culprits had been brought to book. A whole US$15 billion just went missing. But how, is the question that has not been answered? Sadly, Mugabe went to his grave without letting the cat out of the bag. He did not divulge who was involved and why he raised the issue. Surely, this was not a joke. He was serious. How can a whole nation be kept in darkness on such an important matter that affects it directly? All that stolen money was foreign currency. It is not the useless bond paper money. In 2011, each Member of Parliament was allocated US$50 000 under the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) during the coalition government. I give thanks to all the united 210 MPs who debated positively and convinced the Executive to act wisely. Unfortunately, corruption reared its ugly head and some constituencies did not benefit anything as MPs and some ministers diverted the funds to their own use. An audit was done and its findings were documented in a publication produced by the Ministry of Justice, Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs. I understand that the publication was never distributed to the public because it exposed serious corruption by some named ministers. They converted to personal use the whole US$50 000 they got for the development of their constituencies. Reliable sources told us both Mugabe and then Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai (both now late) shelved the document to avoid havoc and preferred to keep the government of national unity intact. Nevertheless, assuming that the US$15 billion was distributed to the 210 constituencies in Zimbabwe, each was to receive US$71 500 000. Surely this money would do wonders. Our constituency, Silobela, could have been changed and become a developed rural area and heading towards town status by now. Imagine new schools, new clinics, recreational centres, libraries, dams and irrigation schemes would have been constructed with that money. The 15km potholed strip road between Kwekwe and Silobela could have been tarred with US$15 million. Road engineers told us in 2010 that it cost roughly US$800 000 to US$1 000 000 to construct and t