(EDITORIAL COMMENT) ZACC: Who will watch the watchers?

It is not limited to Government or political parties per se as it afflicts any sector of society where human fallibility manifests.
In Government or politics, corruption occurs when an office-holder or other employee acts in an official capacity for personal gain, and more often than not such self-aggrandisement would be to the detriment of the common good.

This is why no sane person can ever condone corruption as it promotes individual gain at the expense of the public good.
And many a society has been held back wherever such a cancer has gone unchecked.
It was with this in mind that Government set up the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission as a statutory body to help curb corruption wherever it occurs or is reported.

President Mugabe is on record condemning corruption and urging the authorities to clampdown on the scourge. Despite being in existence for over a decade, the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission has not justified its existence, more so the current board that was set-up after the consummation of the Global Political Agreement.
It is a fact that the current commissioners came on board as political appointees.
And it appears that fact, which tied their fate to the life of the inclusive Government, is becoming the straw that will break the camel’s back.

All of a sudden the commissioners have got off their laurels, a commendable development if the manner they are going about it was not so suspicious.
No one knows the criteria the ZACC commissioners are using that makes them target three ministries and the state enterprises that fall under them all headed by people drawn from one of three political parties in the inclusive Government, Zanu-PF.
ZACC insists on probing the Mines and Mining Development Ministry; Youth Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment Ministry; and the Transport, Communication and Infrastructure Development Ministry.

In targeting the three ministers heading these ministries, ZACC alleges they may have been involved in corrupt activities.
This would be fair and fine were it not for the fact that ZACC has been deafeningly silent on well-documented cases of corruption involving other parties to the inclusive Government, principally the MDC-T.

For instance, the MDC-T dominated urban local authorities have been hitting the headlines over the past few years for corrupt dealings, some of which saw the party leadership expel members but ZACC said, heard and saw no evil.
The Prime Minister, whose brief ZACC stands accused of holding by selectively probing the Zanu-PF component of Government, has a suspected case of double-dipping involving millions of Government funds he used to purchase his official residence but ZACC once again looked the other way.

A lot has happened in the private sector, in industry, in schools and one would have to suspend belief to believe that corruption only manifests in the three Zanu-PF ministries ZACC has sworn to probe.
Ironically, ZACC’s actions that have seen it stand accused of abusing office for political expediency are themselves a form of corruption.

Now who will watch the watchers?
Its providential that the tenure of this board is in its twilight. We hope the commissioners who will take over will restore the public’s trust in this critical statutory body.