11 1.2.4 Failure to produce a home grown democratic constitution. A people centred and people crafted constitution is the centrepiece of governance and development. The current Lancaster House constitution was not inspired by the collective consent and consensus of the people of Zimbabwe. The primary object of the Lancaster House conference was to facilitate and secure the irreversible transfer of political power from the colonial power and its surrogates to the indigenous majority. It was not concerned with the details of capturing and expressing the ideals and aspirations of the people of Zimbabwe. There is and there has remained a need to indigenize the constitutional order. The absence of a home-grown constitution remains a source of great dissatisfaction. 1.2.5 Economic mismanagement Upon attainment of independence the challenge was how to open up the economy for the greater participation of the majority of the population while keeping its viability intact. We needed to find ways of dismantling the apartheid-type structures of the colonial economy, while keeping and enhancing further the economic successes and the culture of honest, hard, creative selfreliance and resilience that had so far been attained. Such delicate manoeuvring demanded a wealth of skills in economic planning and development. Unfortunately, however, our economy suffered from a number of factors which included corruption, under-peforming para-statals which kept draining national resources, the inability to balance free market forces with a social welfare approach to economics and a host of other problems. 1.2.6 Corruption Lack of accountability and corruption, have gradually become endemic in the Zimbabwean society. They mostly involve self-benefiting conduct by people or entities in positions of public trust such as police, corporates, media, civil servants and others. In January 2006 the Reserve Bank Governor called corruption a cancer that is fast taking root in our midst. He advised that this problem was overtaking inflation to become the nation’s number one enemy. From 1987 Zimbabwe saw an exponential rise in cases of corruption, and by 2002 it was out of control. The rise in corruption was accompanied by the progressive disintegration of the national morale and a decline in our national economic well-being. The vast majority of corruption scandals involved high ranking politicians. The elites sought to gain and keep economic enrichment at the expense of the common good. Resources meant for the poor or for the common good have been converted to the use of individuals in positions of trust. These scandals have helped to derail our economic progress and produce social misery.