Omega Ukama 
THE Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) says there are ongoing changes to the country’s legal system aimed at speeding-up prosecutions in graft cases.
John Makamure, Zacc’s spokesperson said the anti-graft body has 60 cases awaiting processing at the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), adding that the delays are “concerning.”
“We have been engaging our partners, NPA, and other relevant authorities to make sure that we put in place mechanisms to speed up prosecution of cases, and one way of doing that is to introduce a time limit by which corruption cases must be finalised in our courts… the judicial service commission (JSC) is amending its rules to make sure that there are time limits… if we do that then we can speed up the prosecution process,” Makamure said recently at the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Zimbabwe’s public sector convention.
In 2018, the JSC-introduced specialised anti-corruption courts and Makamure said Zacc has now successfully lobbied President Emmerson Mnangagwa for dedicated prosecutors.
“The president agreed … and gave us the go-ahead to work with the specialised anti-corruption unit in his office, to hire dedicated prospectors for the anti-corruption courts.
“I want to believe that from next year, we will have people who are just there to prosecute corruption cases,” Makamure said.
Meanwhile, Zacc is pushing for changes in legislation that would allow it to keep 15 percent of crime proceeds that it recovers.
“Funding is a challenge and the commission has continued to engage Treasury for increased funding … but there is no way in this difficult economic environment that the government will be able to adequately resource the commission and other agencies involved in the fight against corruption,” Makamure said, adding that “we have proposed as a commission that when we recover assets, we retain 15 percent of what is recovered so that we can financially resource the commission.”
He also revealed that Zacc had made the proposal in an Anti-Corruption Commission Lay Bill that was submitted to the attorney-general’s office earlier this year.
“We still need more accountants and auditors and other skilled personnel to join our team, and they will need to be paid,” he said.
This comes as the country has been struggling to decisively deal with the corruption scourge, with Zacc claiming recently that it has identified assets worth over US$7 billion stashed outside Zimbabwe.
The Financial Intelligence Unit also said US$1 billion per year is estimated to have been laundered between 2014 and 2018.
