MUTARE City Council has been applauded for establishing an integrity committee that will help the local authority to fight corruption.

Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) general manager for prevention of corruption, Clara Nyakotyo also hailed the Mutare City for training its employees to fight the scourge.

Speaking at a workshop for the integrity committee members in Mutare last week, Nyakotyo said the training was an effective way of fighting corruption within the council.

“This training is important because it is one of the effective ways of controlling and fighting corruption. This will help to maintain order within the council,” she said.

“We are not into a cat and mouse relationship with council or anyone, but as Zacc we are guided by the Constitution of Zimbabwe that gives us the right to investigate cases of corruption.”

Nyakotyo added: “We have Section 55 of the Constitution that gives us the powers to investigate. I am happy to say the Mutare City Council is doing well in fighting corruption and the signing of integrity pledges shows its commitment.”

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The city’s acting town clerk Blessing Chafesuka said the local authority was supporting and complementing government efforts to fight the vice.

“We strongly support the objective of the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS 1), which, as council, (we believe) will go a long way in curbing corruption,” he said.

“NDS1 emphasises the importance of proper good governance and this training workshop for our integrity committee members will enhance the key principles of transparency and accountability.”

He said corruption within the city’s departments threatened effective service delivery, noting that the local authority was ready to fight the scourge.

Chafesuka called on council employees to embrace the value of integrity and shun corruption.

The committee members signed integrity pledges, which are expected to strengthen the council’s operating system and help to rid it of the graft scourge.