Online Reporter
CORRUPTION is one of those evils where the Second Republic has been scoring high levels of success, first being willing to move against the dishonest, regardless of their position, and secondly by creating an environment that displays zero tolerance.
Real wealth, created by hard-working people with good ideas within honest and law-abiding businesses, is encouraged.
No one is against Zimbabweans making money honestly and a rising number of effective Government programmes and policies are in place to make this not just possible, but increasingly easier.
The main battle against corruption is to investigate suspicious behaviour properly where suspicion exists, then to collect the evidence and build a good case and then go to court.
With some of the huge sums involved, the judiciary has made the sensible decision that while the general run of cases continues to be heard by regional magistrates, where needed a High Court judge sitting with two assessors presides over a criminal trial and passes sentence.
The Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission, which often takes the investigative lead although working in cooperation with fraud experts in the police and other agencies, and the National Prosecuting Authority which takes the cases to court, have been running in recent years prosecution success rates of 71 to 74 percent.
This shows that more than mere suspicion is needed to convict a person, but that where there is good evidence the corrupt, despite the frequent efforts of some of the high-class defence lawyers they hire who try to halt a trial, will be found guilty.
Both the National Prosecuting Authority and ZACC see this as just the first stage. The punishment needs to be double, both the typical jail term, which should not be light and which should deter others, and the need to reclaim the money and assets diverted by corruption, to prove that crime does not pay.
When the corrupt end up doing jail time and losing the proceeds of their crime through a confiscation order, the rational person will back off from crime and start looking for honest ways of making money using the sort of talents we often see in their pursuit of dishonest wealth. A person exhibiting the sort of innovative skills that some corrupt criminals manage should be able to have the far more satisfying experience of making honest wealth.
Besides the almost three quarters of those charged with corruption eventually being found guilty and almost always jailed, the prosecutors and ZACC have managed to recover and obtain court forfeiture orders for more than US$39 million since 2019, meaning that this money returns to the national Treasury and can be used properly, sometimes in the very programmes it was originally assigned to before the thieves moved in.
The seizure of assets is usually the final stage of the legal process, so the total value of the suspected corruptly used assets will normally be much larger as these are the cases in progress. This is shown by the fact that the National Prosecuting Authority is handling corruption cases totalling US$217 million in assets.
The progress against corruption is not just seen in more investigation and the building of cases sufficiently good to see a 74 percent conviction rate, but also in the determined efforts by all involved to work together and to speed up the discovery, investigation and trial stages.
Better auditing and more wide-awake officials mean that corruption will be discovered, and often discovered in time for a proper investigation to be mounted successfully. There were times in the past when people suspected there was corruption, but no one was collecting enough data to even show that money or assets were missing. In the worst cases people were frightened to look too hard.
With the election of President Mnangagwa and the advent of the Second Republic that easy-going approach ended rather rapidly. This was not just the need to bring integrity and honesty to the fore, but also a condition of many who were interested in investing in Zimbabwe, but were totally opposed to being ripped off by the corrupt trying to gain a share of the investment.
Several major investors have made it clear that while they had expressed interest in the past, it was only with the clear anti-corruption policies of President Mnangagwa, which went as far as he or his office listening when allegations were made, that the investment could move from the potential realm to actual work on the ground. That helped to generate the huge surge in investment seen under the Second Republic, with the investors knowing they are getting a fair deal from Zimbabwe.
Other anti-corruption measures include the upgrade of systems. Customs clearance at Beitbridge was one earlier example and part of the major upgrade of that border post. As has been noted, it is impossible to bribe a computer, so smugglers cannot corrupt the officials and their systems, and the other means for avoiding duties are easier to detect involving physical effort such as carrying goods across the Limpopo.
There is growing support for improving the facilities at the disposal of the Auditor General, who has a very wide remit, but who has been catching cases of apparent corruption along with preventing shoddy accounting that can open doors to far more. We would support these moves and good accounting is needed for so many reasons, including aiding the battles against corruption and waste.
The very close alliance between the National Prosecuting Authority, ZACC and the anti-fraud units in the police has stopped any potential turf wars that can dissipate efforts and moved everyone to fighting the same battles simultaneously, and thus combining against the criminals. That needs to be continually extended.
The main result of all this effort is that we are winning the war against corruption.
