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Editor — For the first time in Zimbabwe we have true leadership at the helm of the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC).
A no nonsense hard working lady by the name of Loice Matanda Moyo. In Ndebele they say wenz’umsebenzi njengomsebenzi/ Shona they say anorova basa sebasa.
My warning to those who have broken the law is be very afraid. To those who have criticised her, please give her time and measure her failures when she has failed.
The main factor driving growing corruption in Zimbabwe is greed among those vested with power and position regardless of how high or low the posts they hold.
The motivation for them to get involved in corruption is property and money, so ZACC should ensure that whatever acquisitions made from income of corrupt and abuse of power means will be frozen and seized by and forfeited to the state, and not just by bringing them to face justice in court.
To ensure the action is more effective, the freezing of properties should be carried out even if the person is just a suspect and the case is still under investigation.
For our legislatures to help judge Matanda-Moyo to achieve her goal, the laws need to change immediately with stern measures where one’s assets are immediately frozen once one is reported to ZACC.
A typical example is the former Minister Ignatius Chombo whose case is before the court and he is busy enjoying his loot without any interference. Infact I am told “he is laughing all the way to the bank”. If his loot was frozen there is no way he would have been requesting his passport to go to Dubai.
There is now a need to immediately freeze, confiscate and forfeit properties acquired by corrupt practices and abuse of power. This law should be enforced more aggressively to combat corruption in the country. Even those that leave the country should not have access to their loot acquired corruptly.
While the case is under investigation, the properties owned by the individual under investigation could be frozen based on various acts. This is because we do not want them to dispose (of the properties), so it would be difficult for us to detect them, the better we freeze the property, the further this will be felt in corruption industry.
The ZACC Act should allow that the property of a suspect be frozen for up to 90 days with an extension of 12 months more if there are reasonable grounds.
If there is a strong criminal case, charges are pressed in court and at the same time the properties should become the subject matter to the charge and if the court decides to forfeit the right, then the properties of the accused should be forfeited.
Coming back to the topical story, surely how on earth was one person, Mrs Prisca Mupfumira able to steal USD$100 million without a single person noticing.
ZACC this is definitely a network of thieves who had devised a way to effectively loot our pension funds without leaving a trail of destruction.
A minister is not an employee of NSSA and neither is the permanent secretary. So who was giving Mrs Mupfumira our pension funds? There is now a need to dig deeper into this rot and get to the bottom of this well-structured corruption network, which is across all parastatals in Zimbabwe.
Once again Kudos to ZACC, lets stop this corruption rot that is now part of Zimbabwean culture.
Kudzayi Mutisi
Online Reporter