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Bulawayo Bureau
GOVERNMENT is working on new strategies to deal with high profile corruption as suspects are becoming so sophisticated that there is little evidence to prosecute them, resulting in the public losing confidence in the courts.

Government has said it is not impressed with how corruption cases are being handled by courts.

While several high-profile individuals have been arrested on alleged corruption, there have not been many convictions.

Former Cabinet ministers Prisca Mupfumira and Obadiah Moyo were fired from Government after being accused of corruption. Their cases remain dragging before the courts. Low conviction rate on corruption cases have seen members of the public coining the catch and release phrase as they argue that suspects are arrested and then released.

In an interview, Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi said the public has lost confidence in the handling of corruption cases.

“There is also a critical challenge that we deal with corruption cases so that they move at a pace that would result in members of the public being confident that something is happening which can act as a deterrent. We are not pleased with the pace at which they have been moving. There has been some movement but it is not pleasing. So, I believe that is an area that we need to find new strategies that will result in cases being attended to expeditiously,” said Minister Ziyambi.

He said suspected criminals have found ways of stalling cases.

Minister Ziyambi said corruption was negatively impacting on ordinary citizens who are not involved in it.

“The reason why we need to interrogate and find new strategies is that, by its very nature, corruption is a crime that involves several people that have means. Omama (women) out there in the rural areas, they do not engage in corruption. Those that have means, those that are sophisticated are the ones engaged in it and they now use their sophistication and their resources to ensure that they stall trials, they derail whatever is happening,” said Minister Ziyambi.

“That is why I say we need new strategies and innovations and whatever we can use to attend to corruption cases. I cannot say the training that we had alone was adequate, we need a cocktail of strategies so that we realise the goal of fighting corruption.”