THE Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) is reportedly targeting local authorities ahead of the 2023 elections in a bid to weed out corrupt elements.
Yesterday, Zacc pounced on Guruve chief executive officer
Tinos Marisa who is facing abuse of office charges.
Marisa was arrested in the morning on various charges,
among them theft of bricks, drilling boreholes at his farm using council
property and misuse of devolution funds.
The arrest of Marisa comes barely a week after 11 Mutare
city councillors were arrested for defying a directive by Local Government
minister July Moyo and increased their allowances above those gazetted by the
ministry.
They appeared in court and were granted $40 000 bail each.
They will be back in court tomorrow.
Last Friday, Zacc investigators arrested six Norton
councillors affiliated to the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) for
parcelling out stands in undesignated open spaces.
Contacted for comment on Marisa’s arrest, Guruve Rural
district council chairperson Ngoni Jeke said: “At the moment I don’t know what
is happening since I am out of office. I will find out if this true.”
It is alleged that Marisa owns several pieces of land in
Guruve.
Marisa is expected to appear in court soon in Bindura where
he was taken yesterday.
Zacc spokesperson John Makamure told NewsDay that there was
an ongoing Zacc operation targeting local authorities.
“There is an ongoing operation, which we called review and
compliance of proper procedures in local councils and other departments,”
Makamure said.
CCC deputy spokesperson Gift Siziba condemned the arrests
saying they were politically-motivated.
“It’s clear persecution, people are too eager to tarnish
the intention, objectives and the image of the opposition in different parts of
the country, and to make sure they destabilise the party from its programmes.
“It is clear political persecution. We have the 2023
elections which are coming, and so our councils will be destabilised because we
preside over a majority of them in the country,” he said. Newsday
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