HOME Affairs minister Obert Mpofu has warned police officers to avoid
rushing to arrest public officials on “unfounded claims” before
exhausting their investigations.
Speaking at the official launch of Zimbabwe Republic Police’s
anti-corruption unit in Harare yesterday, said law enforcement agents
should not be swayed by “unfounded claims”.
“Our mandate is very clear. It is to deal with corruption
decisively after thorough investigations and not to follow speculation
and rumours,” he said.
“Allow me to say that corruption is one of the greatest evils of
our time. It is a cancer that rewards those who do not play by the rules
and also creates a system of distortion and diversion, thereby
destroying all efforts aimed at constructive, just and fair governance.”
The police anti-corruption unit, which falls under the Criminal
Investigations Department (CID), will take its finished cases to the
yet-to-be-established commercial crimes courts.
Mpofu said the failure by authorities to deal with corruption was affecting public confidence and economic recovery.
“Therefore, as we commission the Zimbabwe Republic Police’s
anti-corruption unit offices, we remain alive to the echoing cries from
the concerned citizens of our nation. Theirs is a genuine call for us to
rid society of the monster called corruption,” he said.
Mpofu has in the past been accused of corruptly amassing wealth
across all sectors of the economy, but was recently cleared by Zimbabwe
Anti-Corruption Commission’s investigations boss, Goodson Nguni.
Speaking at the same event, Police Commissioner-General Godwin Matanga said his troops were geared to root out the vice.
Chief Justice Luke Malaba told journalists that together with
other stakeholders of the Justice Service Commission, they had
established electronic methods of tracking cases from the police
stations up to the courts in a bid to avoid collusion and corrupt
tendencies. Newsday

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