Over 200 cases on ZACC radar

Source: Over 200 cases on ZACC radar | The Herald July 16, 2019

Justice Matanda-Moyo

Zvamaida Murwira Senior Reporter
The Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) is investigating over 200 cases of corruption-related crimes emanating from a varied spectrum of the economy and arrests will be effected soon, chairperson Justice Loice Matanda-Moyo has said.

She said her commission was out on a mission to aggressively fight corruption and was different from previous bodies given that it was now headed by a judicial officer.

Justice Matanda-Moyo, who is also a High Court judge, said this in an interview at State House where seven ZACC commissioners were sworn in by President Mnangagwa.

“I do not have a person whom we can say he or she is an actual accused person. After we are through with our investigations that is when I will say this one I am taking to court and that one I am not taking to court. So for now we are still doing the investigation(s). We have got the Auditor-General’s report, NSSA audit report, Hwange issues, we have got Command Agriculture, we have got so many cases that we are handling at the moment. We have over 200 cases we are handling,” said Justice Matanda-Moyo.

She said she was impressed by the calibre of the commissioners that was sworn-in yesterday, saying they were from varied backgrounds thereby enriching the commission.

“We are quite happy with the curricula vitae of the commissioners, we have got auditors, accountants, police, lawyers, so we have got a very good team and I am confident that ZACC is going to perform with the type of commissioners that I have got,” she said.

Asked how different her commission was from previous ones, Justice Matanda-Moyo said:  “I am very different. I am a judge and judges are honest people in society and once we take up particular missions we take it to its logical conclusion, so we are a very serious commission.”

The President appointed eight commissioners from a list of 12 that was submitted to him by Parliament’s Standing Rules and Orders Committee chaired by Speaker of the National Assembly Advocate Jacob Mudenda which conducted public interviews last month.

At least 38 candidates were interviewed at Parliament Building in a process that was open to members of the public.

The decision to constitute a new ZACC body followed the resignation of the previous ZACC chairperson and commissioners in January this year.

Parliament received 152 nominations by the closing date of February 28, 2019 after flighting an advertisement inviting those interested to serve as commissioners to apply.

In terms of Sections 237 and 254 of the Constitution, Parliament’s Committee on Standing Rules and Orders is mandated to nominate candidates for possible appointment by the President, to serve as ZACC commissioners as provided for in Chapter 13 of the Constitution.

After receipt of applications, the CSRO then carried out an exhaustive analysis of the nominated candidates to establish their suitability to serve on the commission, and shortlisted 38 candidates.