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Despite suffering legal embarrassment last Thursday, ZACC spokesperson Dr Goodwill Shana told a press conference yesterday that the commission was determined to search the offices of Mines and Mining Development Minister Obert Mpofu; Youth, Indigenisation and Empowerment Minister Saviour Kasukuwere and Transport, Communication and
Infrastructure Development Minister Nicholas Goche. Analysts say ZACC’s insistence to investigate the ministers for alleged graft did not only stem from the fact that the organisation is a GPA creation that is aware that it is now living on borrowed time in light of the adoption of the draft constitution but a pursuit of political objectives.
‘‘The MDC-T has identified these ministers and the state enterprises that fall under them as three of the four critical pillars to the Zanu-PF campaign and its message, and hence is using its appointees in ZACC to try to soil the Zanu-PF campaign,’’ said a source close to developments in the organisation.
The ZACC initially erroneously obtained a search warrant from the High Court to search the trio’s offices. The commission had been granted a search warrant by High Court judge, Justice Charles Hungwe on March 11 when they should have approached a magistrates court for the document.
But Judge president George Chiweshe interdicted ZACC from searching the offices of the National Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Board (NIEEB) and the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC) pending the finalisation of the matter.
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Dr Shana surprisingly told a press conference yesterday that they did not consent to the cancellation of the search warrant, yet their lawyers admitted in court last Thursday that they illegally acquired search warrants from the High Court to search and seize documents from the offices of three Government ministers.
“It is incorrect. I do not know who admitted to that. We wanted to regroup . . . There are various options that we are still looking at,” he said.
Dr Shana denied the assertions that the search warrants were fraudulently acquired.
The ZACC, which is a creation of the GPA, says it exhausted all prescribed procedures and avenues for obtaining search warrants since February 26 up to March 10.
“The option to obtain a search warrant from the High Court was exercised after numerous efforts failed to secure one from the police or magistrate court.
“This was unusual as search warrants are ordinarily given without much ado as the records show, even as recent as in the past two weeks,” he said. Dr Shana said the powers of the commission were limited if the police or the courts refused to grant the search warrants.
“If the police or the magistrates refused to grant you a search warrant then the hands of the commission will be completely tied,” he said.
“Therefore, there is a lacuna in the law which needs to be looked at and reviewed.” Dr Shana also denied reports that the commission was itself corrupt as it was receiving allowances from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.
The commission, he said, last received allowances from the central bank in 2008 when almost all government departments were getting quasi-fiscal benefits from RBZ.
Dr Shana said the commission’s operations relied on little resources from the Treasury.
Online Reporter