Corruption can never be a sign of cleverness or a blessing but is evil and destructive

The moral compass of a nation is not forged in parliament or the courts; it is cast at the dinner table, in the streets, and in the quiet assumptions of our daily lives.

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When a child grows up believing that finding a dropped dollar note on the pavement is an answered prayer from God, we are quietly grooming a future corrupt person.

That child never considers that somewhere, someone is crying after losing that very dollar, which they desperately needed to buy a loaf of bread for their children.

When a young graduate assumes that landing a job simply because their uncle is the hiring manager is a divine blessing, the seeds of nepotism are sown.

They do not even stop to think that someone else who is more qualified and competent, and who could have added real value to the company, was denied this opportunity.

When an individual feels entitled to jump a long queue at the bank just because they are well-known, believing it to be a sign of cleverness, they are already destined to destroy lives in the future.

They do not care that there are ordinary citizens, including the elderly, who have been standing patiently in that same queue for hours.

Tragically, this is precisely how many of us have been socialized to think.

We have warped the definitions of favor and intellect, dressing up systemic decay in the language of blessings and cleverness.

Little do we consider that these seemingly minor infractions are, in fact, blatant corruption in its infancy.

We cultivate a culture that glamorizes the shortcut, and then we wonder why the highway is crumbling.

Should we be shocked, then, when an adult who maintains close relations with the ruling elite secures multi-million-dollar public contracts without ever going through a competitive bidding process, and proudly regards it as a blessing?

Is it any surprise when an individual uses his links to the powerful to help a private company land a R1.1 billion contract to supply election material, only to pocket a staggering R800 million of that money as a middleman’s fee?

Think about the mathematics of that theft: the actual cost of the material was only R300 million, while nearly three-quarters of the public funds went directly into a single person’s pockets.

Yet, the individual applauds this as “cleverness” and boasts that he never broke any laws.

Are we to be blindsided when someone close to the levers of power secures a tender to drill community boreholes at three or four times the actual market cost of a single unit, and walks away viewing themselves as deeply blessed?

We look at the luxury vehicles and the sprawling mansions and we whisper about their good fortune.

Yet, is this really cleverness?

Are these people truly blessed?

Or is it just shameless plunder?

Is it not, when stripped of the fancy suits and political connections, simply cold-hearted wickedness?

We must stop sanitizing theft with soft language.

What kind of “blessing” leaves public coffers entirely empty, completely unable to purchase critical medicines and lifesaving equipment for our public hospitals?

Because of this supposed favor, thousands of ordinary citizens needlessly lose their lives each year, dying of treatable ailments while the “blessed” fly abroad for headaches.

What type of cleverness actively steals the future of our children, forcing them to attend schools that are nothing more than makeshift wood and dagga structures, completely lacking basic learning materials like textbooks and science equipment?

What “blessing” leaves millions of Zimbabweans languishing in deep poverty, struggling to meet the barest costs of living, while walking on top of abundant mineral wealth?

What “cleverness” leaves citizens without regular electricity supply and running water in their homes for months or years on end, while the very roads they drive on crumble into death traps?

Is it a “blessing” when an individual’s artificial monopoly over fuel supply leads to the most expensive petrol and diesel on the entire continent, driving the cost of transport and basic food far beyond the reach of the majority?

What drives a righteous anger deep into my soul is that most of these corrupt individuals claim to be Christians—the very same faith that I hold dear.

They stand before congregations, hands raised in worship, proudly testifying about their overnight wealth as a sign of financial breakthrough and blessings from God.

They write books about favor and give motivational speeches about success, using the altar to legitimize wickedness.

They preach “blessings” yet are happily enabling the laundering of stolen public money and the smuggling of our mineral wealth, using the pulpit to hide their plunder.

They proudly declare their “blessings” when splurging millions of dollars at a wedding, completely indifferent to the sea of grinding poverty that their very corruption helped create.

Let us stop lying to fellow believers.

Our Jehovah God does not bless one person by orchestrating the systemic suffering of millions of others.

What kind of God would open a door for an over-inflated government tender that directly results in a cancer patient dying in agony, simply because the hospital failed to access a functional radiotherapy machine?

The money that could have bought that lifesaving machine, and serviced it for a decade, is the exact money that was diverted to fund that inflated tender.

God does not trade human lives for a contractor’s luxury lifestyle.

Let us speak truth to power and to ourselves.

Corruption can never be a sign of cleverness, and it is absolutely, definitively not a blessing.

It is an abomination.

It is a parasite that feeds on the blood of the vulnerable, and until we call it by its true name—evil—we will continue to worship the very people who are destroying us.

• Tendai Ruben Mbofana is a social justice advocate and writer. To directly receive his articles please join his WhatsApp Channel on: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaqprWCIyPtRnKpkHe08