By Cde Patriot Sunungura

True patriots, if our fellow countrymen thought ghosts only haunted graveyards, they clearly haven’t read the latest annual audit reports.

Since 2015, the Office of the Auditor General (OAG) has been sounding the alarm on financial chaos across government ministries, local authorities, and parastatals, but like a persistent stubborn tout operating on an illegal pickup point, the warnings are ignored.

Year after year, billions vanish without a trace.

Ministries pay out cash with no receipts, parastatals advance loans with no paperwork, and local councils can’t explain millions, sometimes not since 2014.

At Gweru City Council, clerks pocketed at least ZWL$78,000 in a year, while Harare City Council treats unexplained donations like a magic trick: “now you see it, now it’s gone.”

Fellow true patriots, this isn’t oversight; it’s wilful neglect, a system where corruption is celebrated like braai and sadza on a weekend outing.

Our beloved parastatals, the likes of Air Zimbabwe, National Railways, and NetOne, which were once engines of progress, and now resemble ghost towns, with payments made years in advance for transformers, fuel, and vehicles that never arrive.

Some transactions date back a decade.

One wonders if these officials are secretly running a time-travel scam.

The numbers are dizzying.

In 2018, ZWL$91.8 million went out the door with no loan agreements.

By 2019, ZWL$1.4 billion had disappeared from the Exchequer Account.

And in 2021, the Ministry of Finance showed a ZWL$7.9 billion black hole, plus nearly ZWL$2.2 billion sent to the National Oil Infrastructure Company with no explanation.

If this were a pay-per-view network like Netflix or Showmax, viewers would demand refunds.

Repeated recommendations from the OAG are treated like leftover sadza because, true patriots, they are read, discussed, then thrown away.

Four out of five years, at least half of audit advice was ignored.

The message is clear to the Zimbabwean citizenry: accountability is optional, and immunity guaranteed.

True patriots, to be honest, the so-called sanctions and “external enemies” aren’t to blame; the rot comes from within.

Corruption is now a national sport, played by officials who know the OAG’s cautions are about as effective as teaching a goat to read.

True patriots, we don’t eat promises or drink excuses.

We need functioning schools, hospitals, roads, and industries, and definitely not kleptocrats feasting while the poor beg for scraps.

Honestly, who doesn’t yearn for a government that acts, punishes fraudsters, and restores integrity?

The OAG has done its part.

The ball is in your much-hyped Second Republic’s court.

Will our government enforce accountability, or will the masses continue to watch billions disappear, year after year, like ghosts at a funeral, only to be seen, mourned, and forgotten?