- HARARE (Sapa-AFP) -- As Zimbabwe's
economic and political crisis deepens, corruption levels in the troubled
southern African country have soared, a watchdog said on Monday.
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- Transparency International Zimbabwe (TIZ) said millions
of Zimbabwe dollars were fleeing the country while a dual pricing system
for government entities and the rest of the population was fostering a
burgeoning black market for scarce goods like fuel and maize.
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- "The breakdown of the rule of law is a major contributor
to the escalation of corruption in Zimbabwe," TIZ chairperson John
Makumbe told a press conference.
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- Zimbabwe is in the throes of a severe economic crisis
with inflation at 455.6 percent and unemployment at around 75 percent.
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- While many basic goods are unavailable at supermarkets,
they are readily available on the parallel market at much higher prices.
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- "We are seeing the black market, rather than shrinking,
expanding," Makumbe said.
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- The TIZ chairperson, who was speaking at the end of a
one-day national anti-corruption conference, said the economy was being
"stripped of its assets" by corrupt practices both in the private
and government sectors.
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- "We are aware that millions, if not billions of
Zimbabwean currency is being externalised," Makumbe noted.
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- Chronic cash shortages in Zimbabwe have recently been
alleviated by the introduction of a new form of currency, bearer cheques.
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- But bank queues have begun to resurface amid reports
that the cheques, like the traditional bank notes, are being taken out
of the country where they are used to buy foreign currency for resale on
the black market back home.
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- Foreign currency such as the United States dollar can
fetch up to seven times its official rate of one US dollar to 824 Zimbabwean
dollars on the black market.
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- Zimbabwe has recently plummeted in Transparency International's
corruption index to a rank of 106, with only 27 other countries considered
more corrupt. In 1998 it was ranked 43.
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