PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa has been warned Zimbabweans
will embark on Operation Restore Legacy 2 if he fails to arrest Home Affairs
minister Obert Mpofu and other ministers implicated in corrupt deals.
The issue was raised by Mabvuku-Tafara MP James Maridadi
(MDC-T) on Tuesday and created heated debate in the National Assembly during a
discussion of the Finance Bill brought by Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa to
do with the 2018 National Budget.
“There are names in Cabinet that are so synonymous with
corruption like Mpofu, where there is a problem with $15 billion diamond
revenue which disappeared and the person who was in charge was Mpofu and he
cannot be seen to be working with Mnangagwa,” Maridadi said.
“If he does not do due process that clears him of
corruption, then he must be fired because Mnangagwa said there are no sacred
cows.”
Maridadi questioned why the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption
Commission (Zacc) had cleared Information and Communication Technology minister
Supa Mandiwanzira who was accused of corruption by former NetOne boss Reward
Kangai.
“Zacc is not the police and he (Mandiwanzira) should be
able to clear his name. If former Finance minister Ignatius Chombo and former
Foreign Affairs minister Walter Mzembi were arrested for corruption, then why
not them? Where does one man get money to construct a three-storey house which
is bullet-proof and has a helipad in this country where there are no drugs?” he
said referring to former Local Government minister Saviour Kasukuwere.
“We have ministers in this government that buy their
children vehicles worth $200 000 and where do they get the foreign currency
from?”
Maridadi said some ministers and top government officials
were supposed to be in Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison and not Cabinet and
Parliament.
“The house which was built by former Police Commissioner
Augustine Chihuri was as big as Holiday Inn and we all know how much he earned,
so where did he get the money from? Zimbabweans were patient for 37 years, but
if nothing happens to those ministers, then we the people will do a citizens’
arrest and cause a scene and see whether Mnangagwa will give them amnesty.
Chinamasa must go to Mnangagwa and tell him that he cannot
do his duties effectively with these men,” Maridadi said.
Norton MP Temba Mliswa (independent) said former First Lady
Grace Mugabe had 20 farms and called on government to repossess them.
“We had a Minister of Transport who was there when Air
Zimbabwe was being changed to Zimbabwe Airways and we need thorough
investigations by Zacc. Mnangagwa is the man for the job, but the problem is
the people around him. The whole Cabinet needs to be investigated or we will
continue to have Operation Restore Legacy 2. I am not jealous about Mpofu’s
wealth, but we need to know how he acquired it. Zimbabwe comes first and we
shall continue to tell the generals (army) what is criminal,” Mliswa said.
But Chinamasa yesterday said it was wrong to name
individuals and make allegations without evidence.
“If we pursue each other on the basis of lack of evidence,
then there will be disaster. We are not accustomed to rich Africans and when we
see a rich African we think he is a thief, but we do not say the same for a
rich European. I first met Mpofu in the 1980s and already he was a very rich
person owning buildings, and so let us be careful and have evidence before
accusations are made,” Chinamasa said. Newsday
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