By Martin Muleya
MUTARE, Zimbabwe (News Of The South) -A leading Non-Governmental Organisation engaged in the fight against corruption in Zimbabwe is intensifying efforts of fighting the scourge through sensitizing members of the fourth estate on the importance of investigative journalism in unearthing corruption cases.
Speaking during a one day investigative journalism refresher workshop that was held in Mutare today, Transparency International Zimbabwe (TIZ) research and advocacy committee member Samuel Matikiti said their aim was to intensify and compliment government efforts in fighting corruption such as the establishment of special Anti-Corruption courts.
Matikiti said such strides will make his organisation disseminate information to communities through researches in the justice sector in order to raise awareness in fighting corruption at grassroot level.
“Basically with the new administration there are many efforts being implemented to fight corruption and one of them is the establishment of special Anti-Corruption courts and in Mutare it is the third after Harare and Bulawayo respectively. In the security sector Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) now also have an Anti-Corruption unit within their force. Now with the establishment of special Anti-Corruption courts in the country this has buttressed our relationship with journalists whom we have been working with, in the past in terms of fighting corruption.
“At the same time as an organisation as much as we do our work, we have to intensify our information dissemination to communities so that ordinary citizens know how corruption affect them indirectly. This through our commitment in fighting corruption will help us intensify our efforts in fighting corruption and capacitate citizens,” said Matikiti.
He added that fighting corruption was not a stroll in the park but rather a robust process that involved engaging citizens of this country at all levels as well as journalists in helping unearthing corruption cases.
He reiterated that resorting to court should be the last line of defence after having educated the citizens about the evils of corruption.
Prosecutor General of Zimbabwe Kumbirai Hodzi while officially opening the special Anti-Corruption court in Mutare last week at Mutare magistrate courts warned that the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) was putting measures to ring fence both the judicial officers and the general public to shun away from corruption.
“The NPA is currently dialoguing with the Ministry of Justice, Treasury and the Civil Service Commission to align the conditions of service and the renumeration of the Prosecutors and non-prosecutorial members of staff with other players in the justice delivery sector. This is because we are aware of the need to capacitate and ring fence prosecutors.
“Prosecutors like all other relevant actors in the justice delivery sector must be well remunerated so that they are single mindedly focused on the task at hand. This does not mean we should condone acts of corruption within our ranks because people are poor remunerated.
“We will act against those that are suspected to have committed acts of corruption and we will not spare anyone. No one is above the law,”said Prosecutor Gen Hodzi.
NPA boss highlighted fighting corruption was not a stroll in the park but rather a robust process that involves engaging citizens of this country at all levels.
He reiterated that resorting to court should be the last line of defence after having educated the citizens about the evils of corruption.
“Combatting corruption is not simplistic, it is a robust process that involves engaging the citizen of this country at all levels. The citizens are the vanguard that holds the fort against corruption. We need to educate the citizens about the evils of corruption and the power they have to put end to corruption. Zimbabwe will be corruption free the day our citizens refuse to pay bribes for services that should be free from government officers, we will have won the fight, the day every citizen decides to live a life of integrity,” he added.
Hodzi then, noted that with these courts in place it meant Government was taking the eradication of corruption and prosecution of corruption cases seriously hence the need to defeat corruption meaningfully and strengthening the rule of law as an urgent matter.
Local freelance journalist in Mutare Clayton Masekesa also weighed in saying the investigative workshop for journalists was so essential particularly to journalists doing freelancing as they are at liberty to unearth hidden information regarding corruption cases that the State media would be failing to divulge to the public.
“This workshop is important as it brings out the critical role that freelance journalism is playing as they disseminate hidden information that the State media would have failed to divulge to the public. Thus the workshop has brought out how freelance journalists have done in trying to fight corruption through exposing controversial corruption cases of high profile figures in the country, remarked Masekesa.
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