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On assuming office in November 2017, President Mnangagwa committed himself to sparing no effort in fighting corruption.

He, however, soon found out that the body, whose mandate was to make his goal achievable, the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC), was actually itself corrupt.

With corruption so deep-seated at that level, the anti-graft fight was enmeshed in a web in which there was effectively no one to police the police. ZACC had reduced itself to a high-sounding nothing; commissioners speaking tough against the vice but targeting only the small fish with cases that soon collapsed while the big fish continued in their corrupt ways.

Happily for the President and for all ordinary Zimbabweans who have grown weary watching as corruption took over the country, the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commissioners took a decision to resign on January 31 this year.

He immediately accepted their resignations and the process of appointing the new chairperson and request for nominees from the Parliamentary Committee on Standing Rules and

Orders for appointment as commissioners was initiated.

At the end of May, the President swore in Justice Loice Matanda-Moyo as the new ZACC chairperson.

The judge is a person of impeccable credentials and we have high hopes for her in her new, challenging job.

She has the responsibility to recover ZACC and the anti-graft agenda from the lowly place it had been taken by the previous commission.

She has the President’s support and can be rest assured that the people of Zimbabwe are behind her too.

On June 28, the Government granted arresting powers to ZACC. The changes were announced in an Extraordinary Government Gazette published through Statutory Instrument 143 of 2019.

The new regulations modified the previous legal instrument that deals with “peace officers.”

The Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Ziyambi Ziyambi — in terms of Section 2 (paragraph h) of the definition of “peace officer” under the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act (Chapter 9:07) — included ZACC officers.

In terms of the law, a peace officer refers to any worker of the State, county, or a municipality, a Sheriff or other public law enforcement agency, whose duties include arrests, searches and seizures, execution of criminal and civil warrants, and is responsible for the prevention or detection of crime or for the enforcement of law or orders among other duties.

The new regulations cited as Criminal Procedure and Evidence (Designation of Peace Officers) (Amendment) Notice, 2019 (No. 3) modified Statutory Instrument 227 promulgated in 1997.

ZACC and its predecessors were rendered ineffective not only because of lack of political will and questionable approaches by those appointed to take charge of the anti-corruption drive but also because of their lack of arresting powers.

ZACC needed to secure the concurrence of police to effect an arrest on person suspected to be engaging in corrupt activities.

In a number of cases in the past, police tended to refuse to co-operate. This frustrated the work of the anti-corruption watchdog.

But Justice Matanda-Moyo could obviously not run the show alone.
The constitution of the commission was finalised on Monday when the President swore in seven commissioners.

The seven commissioners that were appointed are Gabriel Chaibva, Jessie Fungai Majome, John Makamure, Thandiwe Thando Mlobane, Kuziva Phineas Murapa,

Frank Muchengwa and Retired Major Michael Dennis Santu. Another commissioner, Mabel Ndakaripa Hungwe was not sworn in as she could not attend the function.

Justice Matanda-Moyo commented on the calibre of the eight who have joined her on the commission:

“We are quite happy with the curricula vitae of the commissioners, we have got auditors, accountants, police, lawyers, so we have got a very good team and I am confident that ZACC is going to perform with the type of commissioners that I have got.”

Indeed, we have people who have distinguished themselves in their various endeavours.

For example, Mr Makamure has, through the Southern African Parliamentary Support Trust, campaigned for 28 years for a strong parliament that performs its oversight role on the executive without fear or favour. We can trust him to bring that strength to clamping down on corruption.

Mr Chaibva is a former opposition politician who, in recent years, had made a name for himself in civil society while Ms Majome is a lawyer of repute, who, until July last year, was an opposition legislator.

We are unsure at this stage whether the restructuring of ZACC will go deeper to the secretariat. Justice Matanda-Moyo and her commission will decide whether the rot that resulted in the collapse of the previous commission in January existed at that level.

Now the political will at the very top is there given the President’s efforts since he came to power. Also, we have people of integrity as commissioners. Zimbabwe looks forward to a strong fight against corruption.