CIVIL society group, Transparency International Zimbabwe (TIZ), has called for the disbandment and reconstitution of the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Corruption (Zacc), arguing that the current secretariat had become highly-politicised and was no longer serving its intended purpose.
Source: Govt urged to disband anti-graft body – NewsDay Zimbabwe August 8, 2016
BY OBEY MANAYITI
TIZ executive director Mary Jane Ncube made the call in Harare on Thursday during a public meeting to discuss the role of the media in exposing corruption.
She said Zacc had become so politically embedded and was being used by rival government officials to pursue perceived enemies of the State.
“They are not appointed there to do anything. They are appointed there to sit and protect those who are corrupt in government so that they won’t be arrested or alternatively to go after opponents of the State whether internal opponents or external ones,” she said.
“If you have this highly politicised institution which is selective in its approach to fight corruption, can you say that you have a commission that is fulfilling the mandate of safeguarding the national assets from the corrupt? I think we can safely say no.”
Ncube said most of the Zacc commissioners had no clue on what they were supposed to do as the anti-graft body.
She said even the continuous change of commissioners will not save the situation.
“They may be appointed as new commissioners, but their newness doesn’t mean that they have a new mandate and a new operating environment. They still report to that same appointing authority who appointed them to protect and serve a political function of a party and not the nation,” she said.
Recently, Zacc was grilled by senior government officials including Presidential spokesperson George Charamba, who described it as a “rattlesnake that makes noise first before striking”. This was after the anti-graft body raided various government departments, local authorities and parastatals suspected to be havens of corruption.
Last month, Zacc suspended 19 employees, who included investigators after it emerged they were involved in various alleged corrupt activities.
COMMENTS
How can you possibly have crooks looking for their own members of their own gang! Any Zanu investigation is in itself simply “a Theatre of the Absurd.”