THE Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) – for long
been rapped for being a toothless bulldog – now has arresting powers as
Government takes giant strides in its quest to tackle the scourge of
corruption.
The latest development was announced in an Extra-ordinary
Gazette published last Friday through Statutory Instrument 143 of 2019. The new
regulations modified the previous legal instrument that deals with peace
officers.
Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziyambi
Ziyambi has 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.
Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs permanent
secretary Mrs Virginia Mabiza confirmed the promulgation of the SI 143 and
explained its effect.
“The statutory instrument gives powers of arrest to
officers of ZACC,” she said. “This means that in addition to their special
powers to fight corruption they can now arrest any person on reasonable
suspicion of any other crime having been committed.”
Mrs Mabhiza added: “Peace officers hand over those under
their arrest to the police to continue with investigations. Before the
instrument, ZACC would simply make recommendations for the police to arrest in
terms of the Constitution.”
The Commission is mandated to investigate and expose
criminal cases before handing them to the police as outlined in the country’s
Constitution.
It also had authority to direct police to investigate
criminal cases as spelt out in the Commission’s roles.
Further, the Commission has power to direct the
Commissioner-General of police to investigate cases of suspected corruption, to
refer to the Prosecutor-General matters for prosecution, as well as to require
assistance from members of the police.
ZACC, however, does
not have prosecution functions as their function ends with handing any
potential corruption cases over to the police for further management.
The Prosecutor-General working in conjunction with Special
Anti-Corruption Unit prosecutors have prosecutorial discretion to initiate
criminal proceedings. Herald
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