AFRICAN EYE

By Rawlings Magede In one of my articles in 2019, I attempted to highlight the existence of what Francis Fukuyama termed “shadow economies” in our Zimbabwean context. In his book, Political order and Political decay, he traces the origins of the Italian Mafia in cities such as Lombardy and Sicily. He notes that they gained ground owing to the dysfunctional of the justice system in these cities where landlords enlisted their services to collect rentals from tenants. In the process, they ended up ripping off both the landlord and tenant by charging exorbitant mark-ups and threatening all forms of violence to anyone who resisted their demands. In all their activities, the mafia does not pay any form of tax but rather thrive on protection fees charged to rich elites to protect and cement their business interest. Zimbabwe is on edge. Bizarre stories of killings by machete wielding gangs have enveloped an already sombre festive season. The already tainted festive mood was worsened by i