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Herald Reporter
Zimbabwe’s first black Comptroller and Auditor-General, Mr Abdulman Eric Harid a former Commissioner of Taxes, has died.

Mr Harid died at West End Hospital in Harare on Monday this week. He was 82.

The family said he had been unwell for some time and that when he was hospitalised, it was discovered that he had cancer.

He was buried on Wednesday afternoon at Pioneer Cemetery, in Harare, next to his parents and his brother, Mr Abraham Harid, who was one of the country’s first black surgeons.

With the advent of independence, there were no major structural changes in the audit set up, however, of critical importance was that in the exercise of his function, the Comptroller and Auditor-General is not subjected to the direction or control of any person or authority other than the Parliament of Zimbabwe.

In 1987, Mr Abdulman Eric Harid was appointed the first black Comptroller and Auditor-General. He remained in office until 2004, when the first female black Comptroller and Auditor-General, Mrs Mildred Chiri, was appointed.

Owing to growing concern over corruption, the country’s Anti-Corruption Act came into operation in 2005 and Mr Harid’s next public appointment was as the first chairperson of the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC).

He was succeeded at the Commission by a team led Dr Job Whabira.

Mr Harid’s next public appointment was in 2014, when Dr Obert Mpofu, then Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Development, appointed him Chairman of the Board of Air Zimbabwe. After Air Zimbabwe, Mr Harid concentrated on farming in Bindura.

He is survived by four sons and three daughters.

A family spokesperson described him as “a practical hard-working man”.