Tendai Gukutikwa
Mutare Bureau
THE Zimbabwe Independent Complaints Commission (ZICC) is set to recruit 36 additional officers following Treasury approval, in a move expected to strengthen investigations into alleged misconduct by members of the country’s security services.
The recruitment comes as the Commission grapples with severe staffing shortages, with only 35 officers in post against an approved establishment of 144.
Speaking at the Commission’s strategic planning review workshop in Nyanga last week, chairperson Retired Justice Webster Chinamora said Treasury had approved the additional posts following a job evaluation exercise.
“Of an approved establishment of 144 posts, we currently have 35 officers in post,” he said.
“Treasury has given concurrence to the recruitment of a further 36 posts following the job evaluation exercise, and the Commission has set itself the task of bringing those officers on board without delay.”
Justice Chinamora said the recruitment would improve the Commission’s capacity to fulfil its constitutional mandate and implement its programmes.
He identified delays in information exchange between the Commission and security services, poor records management, procurement delays and inadequate departmental coordination as some of the operational challenges affecting its work.
These bottlenecks, said Justice Chimamora, were compromising the speed and effectiveness of investigations and needed to be addressed through improved institutional coordination and efficient systems.
“The complainant experiences one Commission, not a set of departments. Intake, assessment, investigation, early warning, legal services, communications and corporate services must, therefore, operate as one system with one standard of service,” he said.
The Commission is strengthening its Complaints Assessment Committee and Investigations Committee to ensure that cases are handled through proper procedures and decisions are supported by evidence.
Another key priority is decentralisation, which is aimed at taking the Commission’s services closer to communities and enabling people outside Harare to lodge complaints more easily.
“A Commission that can only be reached in Harare is not accessible to the majority of Zimbabweans,” said Justice Chinamora.
The decentralisation programme will support ZICC’s target of investigating 300 cases in 2027.
He cautioned against interpreting low complaint figures as evidence that misconduct by security services was not occurring, saying limited public awareness, inadequate understanding of the Commission’s mandate and fear of reporting could discourage victims from coming forward.
He said the Commission needed to make its outreach programmes more targeted and responsive, particularly in areas where few complaints were being recorded.
ZICC is considering the establishment of an academy to strengthen professional capacity within the institution and across the security services.
Justice Chinamora said the proposed ZICC Academy and other planned programmes would require proper costing and measurable targets to ensure effective implementation.
He said the Commission’s success should ultimately be judged by the quality of its investigations, accessibility of its services and the remedies secured for victims of misconduct.
“The measure of this Commission will not be the number of pages in its strategic plan or the number of activities it records,” Justice Chinamora said.
“It will be the quality and fairness of its investigations, the accessibility of its processes, the integrity of its recommendations, the remedies it secures for those who have been wronged, and the confidence it earns from the people of Zimbabwe and from the services it oversees.”
ZICC derives its mandate from Section 210 of the Constitution, which provides for an independent mechanism to receive and investigate public complaints of misconduct by members of the security services and recommend remedies for harm arising from such misconduct.
