BY VENERANDA LANGA
JUSTICE minister Ziyambi Ziyambi has claimed that Prosecutor-General (PG) Kumbirai Hodzi (pictured) was quoted out of context over the issue of corruption in the country when he said cartels had captured key government institutions, including the police and Judiciary, making it difficult to tackle graft or bring them to book.
Hodzi made the claim at a Political Actors Dialogue (Polad) meeting in Bulawayo in February.
In Palriament last Wednesday, the chairperson of the African Parliamentarians Network against Corruption Priscilla-Misihairabwi Mushonga asked Ziyambi to explain what his ministry was doing over issues of asset forfeiture, given that a lot of high-profile arrests had taken place, yet none of the accused had been jailed.
“Indeed, high-profile arrests have happened, but what we also have to appreciate is, an arrest does not mean the person is guilty. There are due legal processes that have to be allowed until a verdict of guilty is reached,” Ziyambi said.
“What we also have to appreciate is that those are termed ‘high-profile’ are people with means that can use all available legal recourse at their disposal. So we would find that in most of the high-profile cases, several court applications are made by the accused and that is legal because those processes are allowed.
“Secondly, what we found out worldwide is that it is very difficult to prosecute a corruption case and also very expensive. I am glad that this House also passed an amendment to the anti-money laundering law so that we have a provision for asset forfeiture,” he said.
Norton MP Temba Mliswa (independent) then further grilled Ziyambi over Hodzi: “How can we be assured as a nation (given that) the PG has said that the State has been captured and he is in the public domain, saying that certainly the independence is not there, the impartiality is not there and because of that, him being the PG of the country has no faith in the system.”
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Ziyambi then refuted that Hodzi had ever mentioned that there was capture of the prosecution.
“The first thing that I want to say is that the PG never said that ‘the prosecution is captured’. Secondly, the PG believes that he was quoted out of context. Thirdly, if I am captured, it does not translate to the PG being captured.
“As an individual, I am answerable for my own deeds, so if I do some misdemeanours, perhaps that is what the PG referred to, but in conversation with him, he believes that he was misquoted because they did not take in context what he was saying,” Ziyambi said.
He added: “I believe that there is a difference between the Office of the PG and the State. He prosecutes for the State, so if he indicates that there is something that is happening; he is not speaking per se about his office. I believe that our PG is very independent; our prosecutors apply their minds when they are doing their jobs without any due influence from anyone.”
But Mliswa said Ziyambi was not Hodzi’s spokesperson and must let the PG retract the statement attributed to him on his own.
Ziyambi then said he was speaking on behalf of Hodzi since as Justice minister he tables reports on behalf of the PG’s Office in the House.
