BY KENNETH NYANGANI/PRAISEMORE SITHOLE
Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) spokesperson John Makamure yesterday said the anti-graft body and the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) were unable to deal with highly connected cartels at the heart of corruption in the country without citizens’ help.
He made the remarks in Mutare at a validation workshop on draft national anti-corruption strategy.
In his welcoming remarks, Makamure said corruption had become a way of life in the country.
“Corruption has become a way of life to most of the people in the country. It has become part and parcel of how some people survive in the country,” he said.
“As the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission and the Zimbabwe Republic Police alone we are not able to fight cartels. We need the public to be involved, the public input is needed,” he said.
Recently, former Zanu PF youth leaders Lewis Matutu and Godfrey Tsenengamu named business moguls Kudakwashe Tagwirei (Sakunda Holdings), Billy Rautenbach (Green Fuel) and Grain Millers Association of Zimbabwe chairperson Tafadzwa Musarara as the cartel leaders in the country who were crippling the economy due to their alleged corrupt activities.
“We are strengthening our research department. If you want to know about the cartels, you need all the necessary evidence and you won’t able to do that without investigating. This is the reason why we established a unit that will do the research,” he said.
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Makamure said Zacc was also probing the health sector and would also investigate “public finance management because corruption emanates from weak finance management”.
Addressing a similar meeting in Bulawayo, Zacc commissioner Michael Dennis Santu said: “We should desist from playing the blame game. Two weeks back, Zanu PF youths came to report. They said Mr So and So is corrupt. We said give us the reports, but there were no reports that were brought to us.
“Reports give us indicators because we will not day-dream. There is a need for evidence. A report leads to investigations and investigations need evidence to commence. Therefore, we have to work together as a nation, it’s no longer a Zacc thing.”
Speaking at the same event, Zacc manager (ethics and public education) Munyaradzi Magiga said corruption raises the cost of doing business, facilitates the misallocation and wastage of resources, discourages foreign investment and retards economic growth and development.
