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Tonderai Chidawa and Jones Musara
Almost two years since the epic rise of President E. D. Mnangagwa  to power, he has intensified the fight against corruption through multiple bold actions that have brought the issue into the limelight as one of his key deliverables.

Fighting corruption is generally recognised as critical in enhancing efficiency and attracting investment: the other side of it is inefficiency, graft, slothfulness and chasing away investment through greed and demands for bribes and kickbacks.

A corrupt-free administration is good for business.

It bears no reminding that President Mnangagwa’s early slogan was, “Zimbabwe is Open for Business”.

Corruption undermines this very paradigm.

As such, the Head of State and Government has taken meticulous steps towards cleaning the system and purging corruption and some of the key indicators include:

1. Increased arrests even of bigwigs instead of shielding them
2. Introduction of SACU (Specialised Anti-Corruption Unit) housed in the OPC to resource and protect the prosecutors specialised in prosecuting corruption cases;
3. Supporting the judiciary in establishing SPACCS (Special Anti- Corruption Courts) which specialise in corruption cases to ensure swift and expert justice;
4. Police reforms to sharpen their investigation thrust;
5. Dissolution of ZACC to build a new and biting ZACC with clear arresting powers,
6. Introduction of new Bills such as Money Laundering and Proceeds of Crime Bill which is set to become law and empower ZACC, ZIMRA and ZRP to compel individuals with unexplained wealth to account for such, failure of which may result in criminal charges and forfeiture of such wealth to the State;
7. Creating a fear-free country, and in so doing enabling people to not have fear to name and shame corruption culprits. Due to that absence of fear in the country, there has been increased incidences of naming and shaming of corruption suspects with the most recent one being the one done by the Zanu-PF Youth League which then prompted the Politburo to unanimously resolve that the President appoints a Commission of Inquiry to comprehensively inquire into the allegations.

These bold measures are clear testimonies of a President walking the talk of fighting corruption. The challenge has been securing convictions and this is not the President’ s fault because he is neither a judge nor prosecutor or investigator, all of whom are key in securing convictions.

On the eve of Zimbabwe’s 39th National Independence the President during the interview with ZBC confirmed that corruption was deeply entrenched even in the criminal justice system including police, prosecuting authorities and the judiciary.

This points to internal saboteurs in the system hell bent on derailing the President’s noble fight against corruption. This obviously cannot go unpunished. The same applies to corruption in the economy where saboteurs are wreaking havoc via murky fuel deals, forex hoarding and inflating prices of goods and services.

Not forgetting the State parastatals and councils where the Auditor-General’s Report unearthed worrisome corruption. In Government, some ministers are alleged to be demanding kickbacks from prospective investors. This increases the cost of doing business for the prospective investor and therefore discourages investment. It’s therefore an act of sabotage requiring treatment as such.

As concerned citizens, we call upon the citizens and the constitutionally mandated State entities like ZACC, NPA, ZRP, ZIMRA and Financial Intelligence Unit of the RBZ to roll up their sleeves and complement the President’s noble efforts against corruption.

It is encouraging that the President has already appointed the new chairperson of ZACC, Justice Loice Matanda-Moyo, who has since brought some fresh impetus to ZACC which has since publicised the following toll-free numbers for citizens to report corruption: 0801 0101 AND 0800 4367.

Every citizen worth his/her salt should therefore make use of these numbers and play the citizen part in fighting corruption. Corruption affects us all one way or another, therefore fighting it is in our collective interest.

Thanks to the President’s wise appointment of Justice Loice Matanda-Moyo as the ZACC new chairperson, ZACC now has an encouraging thrust aligned to that of the President. As derived from the ZACC chairperson’s interview with The Sunday Mail of 7 July 2019, the ZACC new thrust is:

1. A new ZACC which is well resourced, functional, fair, efficient and diligent through empowerment of its staff with training in forensic accounting and auditing, modern crime investigations, cyber crime as well as staff empowerment through better wages;
2. Jealously protecting ZACC independence from any quarter;
3. Investigate to arrest not arrest to investigate itself which ensures that ZACC does not violate individual rights;
4. Computerised docket storage and management to eliminate docket dissappearances;
5. Collaboration with other stakeholders to secure convictions with a 99 percent rate.

Now that the ZACC chairperson is in place and has already hit the ground running, the President will appoint the remaining eight Commissioners who are obliged to align with the thrust in place. Once building of new ZACC is complete, convictions are expected to increase. All these investments made by the President in the fight against corruption should yield a bumper harvest of culprits

No doubt, multiple measures are being taken by the President to fight the corruption scourge. If these existing measures against corruption struggle to discourage corruption, then ruthless measures — Chinese style — have to be applied.