Axe hovers over ZACC officers

ZACC Chairperson, Denford Chirindo, has said this could be driven by a political agenda. In March the Commission was barred from conducting searches in the offices of the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation and the National Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Board as part of its investigations into underhand dealings.

This was despite the fact that the officers were armed with a search warrant from the High Court – which later cancelled the warrant. Recently, ZACC spokesperson, Goodwill Shana said the decision to approach the High Court for the search warrant was reached after efforts to get the document from the police and the magistrates courts failed to yield results.

As part of their search, the ZACC officers were targeting the offices of Mines and Mining Development Minister, Obert Mpofu, Youth Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment Minister, Saviour Kasukuwere.

They were also blocked from conducting searches in the offices of the Minister of Transport and Infrastructural Development, Nicholas Goche.

After these events, Chirindo publicly admitted that ZACC had jumped the gun and said that there was a possibility that some officers had deviated from their mandate and were pursuing political agendas.

He told The Zimbabwean that the ZACC would launch a campaign to flush out officers pursuing political agendas whom he said had hugely compromised the work of the Commission.

“I have said that we cannot rule out the possibility that there are officers within the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission who seem to have developed political eyes and ears. So we will have to sit down and find out where we could have got it wrong.

“In other words, I am saying that we are going to be carrying out a self-introspection relating to whatever mistakes we could have done during the course of our investigations,” said Chirindo.

He would not disclose the fate of the officers who could be found guilty of pursuing political agendas and said that the Commission would decide on the way forward as soon as internal investigations were completed.

But inside sources fear officers could be victimised for daring to expose corrupt activities by Zanu (PF) ministers. They said some “big wigs” had interpreted the move to search the offices of the three ministers as a deliberate attempt to portray Zanu (PF) as a corrupt party ahead of elections.

The move demonstrated Zanu (PF’s) overbearing influence over the Commission, said the sources, and had undermined both its independence and effectiveness.

“After the attempt to search the offices of the three Zanu (PF) officials was blocked, some officers have been targeted for disciplinary action and they might face suspension or dismissal. It seems there was an order from above to deal with the officers,” said a source who spoke on condition of anonymity.