The law has a huge impact on my life now whether I like it or not.
Since I don't have a car I use public transport. Just this other day someone
was asking about the Willovale scandal in Zimbabwe. Thank God I had researched on it the other day when I
was doing a research paper on corruption. I will explain in this post what the Willowvale
scandal is and which year it took place.
The Willowvale Scandal in 1988 is one of the widely known corruption
scandals in Zimbabwe. In October 1988, member of parliament Obert Mpofu
accidentally received a check from a car company in Willowvale
whereas the check had actually been intended for Alford Mpofu, a friend of the
then Industry Minister Callistus Ndlovu. Obert Mpofu took the check to Geoffrey
Nyarota, editor of the state-owned Bulawayo Chronicle. The
paper had already built a reputation for aggressive investigations into
corruption at all levels of government, and began to investigate[2]
In 1988, a scandal was uncovered which became known as the Willowgate scandal
in which senior government ministers used their positions, authority and power
to cheaply buy scarce motor vehicles from a vehicle assembly plant, known as
Willowvale Mazda Motors Industry and sold the same cars to third parties at a
profit of 200%[3].
This was clearly a case of illicit enrichment at the expense of the citizens of
Zimbabwe as at that point importing a car to Zimbabwe was only done by
Willovale Motors. The rest of the country was thus prejudiced as the ministers
sought to gain riches at the expense of the general populace clearly violating
economic rights. The revelations shocked the nation and the President set up a
Commission to investigate these allegations and many senior government
officials were named in the scam and one of the Ministers implicated was the
late Maurice Nyagumbo, who out of shame committed suicide in 1989 by drinking
pesticide[4].
The Commission comprised of three people and was referred to as the Sandura
Commission. The Washington Post reported that the commission's
hearings "struck a deep chord" in Zimbabwe, where citizens had grown
to resent the perceived growing corruption of government[5].
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