By Martin Muleya
MUTARE- (News of The South) – Fighting corruption is one of the key pillars of the Second Republic and the President has vowed that his administration’s goal is to build a new Zimbabwe based on transparency, accountability and hard work.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa recognized that corruption is one of the major causes of the problems that Zimbabwe faces today necessitating that all cases be investigated and punished in accordance with the country’s laws.
elsewhere civic organisations like Transparency International Zimbabwe (TIZ) have over the past four years invested resources in activities meant to facilitate the development of a National Anti-Corruption Commission strategy in the country by Government and other anti-corruption sectors.
The government of Zimbabwe of late has taken the initiative and established institutions to deal with corruption. A development that has seen the establishment of Special Anti- Corruption Prosecuting Courts, a new Anti- Corruption Prosecution Unit within the Office of the President.
The fight against graft is in line with regional, continental and global standards which require states to institute measures to deal with corruption.
The United Nations Convention against Corruption to which Zimbabwe is a signatory to, under Article 5 on Preventive Anti-Corruption Policies and Practices, calls upon State parties to develop, and implement or maintain effective, coordinated anti-corruption policies.
At regional level the Southern African Development Community Protocol Against Corruption has had its aim on promoting and strengthening the development within each member state, of mechanisms needed to prevent, detect, punish and eradicate corruption in both the public and private sectors.
The protocol also seeks to facilitate and regulate cooperation in matters of corruption amongst member states and foster development and harmonization of policies and domestic legislation related to corruption.
Zimbabwe adopted the policy of seeking to achieve upper middle income country status by 2030 and to achieve this, the government has already started implementing a number of measures on fighting corruption, one of the sources of increased cost of doing business, rent-seeking behavior and inefficiency on service delivery in both private and public sectors.
Government is also capacitating the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC), the police and prosecuting authorities with the requisite skills to investigate and prosecute crimes related to corruption.
So far Zimbabwe does not have a national corruption strategy in place and thus corruption has remained endemic although there have been policy responses to address it.
Hence it is against this background that TIZ has started consulting citizens across the country on what should constitute part of the country’s national corruption and how it should be enforced.
TIZ Reseacher and head of Programs Farai Mutondoro has urged government against this background, to urgently come up with solid verification mechanisms to enhance transparency and integrity as well as the trust of citizens in public administration.
“Such transparent mechanisms prevent conflicts of interests among public officials and members of the government and avoiding illicit enrichment or other illegal activities by monitoring wealth variations of individuals. In the absence of such verification mechanisms on asset disclosure Government is prone to corruption. There is no framework to monitor, they have been managing situations without a proper cure. national Anti-Corruption strategy is the remedy to solve and do away with corruption in Zimbabwe,”said Mutondoro.
TIZ in its preliminary findings draft paper on the outcome of the national anti corruption strategy workshops, programs and radio sessions has cited seven priority sectors that need to be dealt with to end corruption.
The pillars include judicial sector integrity, public finance management, empowered citizenry, mining sector, land and governance and business environment.
Government should inculcate right measures of awareness, focus and ethic that will usher a sea-change in how the judiciary conducts itself in line with President Mnangagwa’s stance on corruption.
Nothing can send a more solid message other than arrest, conviction followed by seizure and confiscation of assets. There is nothing that says we should not be able to put in place legislation that allows the seizure of unexplained wealth even if there is no conviction.
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