“Unfortunately, Zimbabwe has since gained a notorious reputation of being one of the most corrupt countries in the world. Transparency International, in its latest report on corruption in Zimbabwe, disclosed that the country is losing at least US$1 billion every year because of corruption.
“This is a very startling statistic especially considering the fact that Zimbabwe is being run on an annual budget of about US$4 billion. This, effectively, means that at least one quarter of our budget is lost through the cancer of corruption annually.”
The country’s main opposition party said that ZACC should be left to do its work because it was constitutionally mandated to do so.
“The ZACC is an independent constitutional commission that should be left to impartially and freely investigate all cases of corruption that are brought before it,” the party said.
“The operations of the ZACC will be severely compromised and weakened if powerful politicians and some other such well – placed Zimbabweans are allowed to derail and/or improperly interfere with the day to day operations of the ZACC.
“For as long as Zimbabwe is perceived as a country that tolerates and actually, encourages corruption, it will be virtually impossible for the country to attract meaningful domestic and foreign direct investment.
“This is a clarion call to the ZACC to fearlessly and impartially investigate all reported cases of corruption. Zimbabweans are very keen to know what happened to the US$15 billion worth of diamonds that President Robert Mugabe recently disclosed had been pilfered from the Chiadzwa and Marange diamond fields.
“The people would also like to know what eventually happened to the millions of dollars that were looted from PSMAS. All these reported cases of massive corruption should never, ever be allowed to die a natural death.”
Full statement:
Thursday, 13 October 2016
Zimbabwe anti-corruption commission must be independent
The Zimbabwe Anti – Corruption Commission (ZACC) was established in terms of Section 254 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe. The core functions of the ZACC are to investigate and expose cases of corruption in the public and private sectors as well as to combat corruption, theft, misappropriation, abuse of power and other improper conduct in the public and private sectors.
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