Independent Legislator Temba Mliswa says President Emmerson Mnangagwa who has vowed to eradicate corruption should arrest ministers while they are still in office so that corrupt ministers are suspended.
He said he did not understand why someone appointed by a minister can be said to be corrupt while the minister is exonerated.
In his view, if someone appointed by a minister was found to be corrupt, the minister must be the first accused and the appointee the second accused.
“I look forward to the day the President will arrest Ministers while they are in office. Arresting Ministers out of office does not mean anything. We want Ministers while they are in office, when they are corrupt to be investigated and be suspended,” Mliswa said in his contribution to the President’s speech.
“Corruption can no longer be a situation where we talk about it and we do nothing about it. We have commission of enquiries put up and the mere fact that the President has got the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Committee (ZACC) and then appoints his own committee to investigate corruption only shows that ZACC is corrupt and is not fit to investigate. Otherwise why would he then have another parallel investigating arm when ZACC is there?
“The likes of Goodson Nguni are not credible to be able to be running such institutions. We have people like former Attorney General Gula Ndebele, Justice Chinhengo who we just had who are able to understand the law, look at the case and be able to do that. The credibility of the Anti-Corruption Commission is the one that will talk to people whether the President is serious about corruption or not.
“Also, there are other Ministers who came back into power yet there are institutions like NSSA – Hon. Mupfumira having allegations on corruption. To me, we need to be very clear. If the board chairperson of an institution which a Minister appoints is corrupt and the Minister does not report that they are corrupt, the Minister cannot be exonerated but must also be arrested because he/she appointed the board.
“We cannot separate the board and the Minister. So we are basically playing games. Any Minister who is sleeping on duty and appoints a board which is implicit and does not do its job, the Minister is responsible for appointing the board and as such, is the first to be accused and the board becomes the second accused.
“This is what we want to see. We cannot be playing games and having to protect people because of who they are. When you look at NSSA, the pensioners have suffered immensely in this country yet there are so many deals which are happening with NSSA.”
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