The net is closing on fugitives who fled the country to
escape justice as Government intends to invoke the Money Laundering and
Proceeds of Crime Amendment Act to forfeit their properties and assets.
Head of the Special Anti-Corruption Unit in the Office of
the President and Cabinet (SACU) Mr Tabani Mpofu told The Sunday Mail last week
that Government will use every possible avenue to bring criminals to justice.
Fugitives who seek refuge in foreign countries also now
face extradition. It is understood that Government is also mulling using
diplomatic channels to extradite fugitive former Minister Professor Jonathan
Moyo, who is believed to be holed up in Kenya.
He is wanted for a slew of corruption charges stemming from
his alleged abuse of millions of dollars from the Zimbabwe Manpower Development
Fund.
“We have accused persons who have absconded; we want to
look at enforcing the bail conditions,” said Mr Mpofu.
“And where property has been pledged as part of the bail
conditions, we will be engaging the necessary procedures to have the property
forfeited by the State.
“In addition, we will be looking at all available avenues
open to us in terms of the law to proceed against accused persons who have
willfully absconded from the jurisdiction of our courts with the view to, where
the law permits, forfeit all known property associated with those accused
persons to this date.
“Also procedures have commenced using bilateral and
multilateral relationships to have the accused persons brought to book.”
Individuals who have been issued with warrants of arrest
and have willfully failed to present themselves before the courts risk having
their assets forfeited by the State.
The dragnet will not spare high-ranking Government
officials who now face the possibility of losing properties they surrendered as
surety for bail.
Of late, former Government officials such as Walter Mzembi,
Saviour Kasukuwere and Godfrey Gandawa have failed to appear before the courts
for various reasons.
The Sunday Mail last week reported that Mzembi has since
placed his palatial home on the market amid suspicions that he plans to evade
the long arm of the law.
The Money Laundering Act provides for the Asset Forfeiture
Unit — which falls under the National Prosecution Authority (NPA) — to seize
all assets accumulated through corruption.
Mr Mpofu said SACU is now satisfied with efficiency with
which corruption cases are now being processed at the courts.
Most of the accused persons, particularly those who sought
to delay their cases, have already exhausted their procedural applications, he
said.
“Generally, we are facing a concerted effort by a number of
accused persons facing corruption charges to delay or thwart commencement of
their trials in court,” he said.
“Since the beginning of the year, basically the accused
persons were using due process to delay commencement of trials, but the majority
of them exhausted the procedural applications that are open to them for
delaying commencement of hearing of evidence in court.
“The result has now seen the number of cases commencing.
“We have examples that include the Chivayo case, which has
now taken off and the Hubert Chiwara’s case, which will now see him being cross
examined on the 8th of March.”
SACU recently managed to convince the High Court to throw
out an application for stay of prosecution by former Home Affairs Minister
Ignatius Chombo.
The former Cabinet Minister wanted his charges dropped on a
technicality.
Chombo, through his lawyer Lovemore Madhuku, had applied to
the High Court pleading for a stay of prosecution, arguing his rights had been
infringed by the State after allegedly being detained for more than a week.
SACU’s Ms Venaranda Munyoro argued and won the case after
Justice Mathonsi threw out the application on February 20.
Mr Mpofu said the High Court ruling paves the way for
Chombo to be put to his defence.
“Venaranda Munyoro of the SACU successfully opposed
Chombo’s application to have his criminal case permanently stayed because of
his detention during Operation Restore Legacy.
“This was a major victory. “There are a number of
corruption cases against Ignatius Chombo and these will now be set down very
shortly before our courts for prosecution,” he said. Sunday Mail
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