There is also witness fatigue and lack of witness
protection, opening the door for some high-profile individuals accused of
corruption to escape prosecution and punishment.
While ZACC was investing heavily in training investigating
officers, too many were leaving for “greener pastures” in other sectors or
countries.
In a wide ranging interview on the sidelines of a ZACC
strategic review workshop here, Commission chair Justice Loice Matanda-Moyo
conceded that the high number of resignations was a major challenge.
“Initially, it was a skills challenge, but we then managed
to recruit skilled personnel. But now it is about retaining the skilled
personnel especially after training. We have been training our officers in
crimes involving cyberspace.
“With the advancement of technology, most of the crimes are
now being committed with the use of technology so the Commission has been
training officers along those lines.
“After being trained they become marketable and are wanted
in other sectors or countries. So this has been our major challenge of late.
“We are also doing everything possible to encourage our
officers to stay and we are teaching them that this is a national job. While we
are advocating better salaries, we are also trying to inculcate the idea that
they should also be inspired by the desire to see a better Zimbabwe,” she said.
Justice Matanda-Moyo said the catch and release problem of
accused persons in high-profile corruption cases was fuelled by witness fatigue
and lack of witness protection, but this was being dealt with by the enactment
of the Public Interest Disclosure (Protection of Whistle-blowers) Act.
“The absence of legislation that protects whistleblowers
and witnesses scares away potential witnesses or whistleblowers especially in
high-profile cases where they can endanger their lives.
“There are also cases of accused persons being acquitted
because of witness fatigue and lack of witness protection. As you know
currently we do not have a witness and whistleblower protection law in
Zimbabwe. That in itself scares away possible witnesses or whistleblowers
especially in high profile cases,” said Justice Matanda-Moyo.
“I am happy to say that the principles of that piece of
legislation have been adopted by Cabinet and the Attorney-General’s Office is
now preparing the Bill for presentation to Parliament. So very soon we are
going to see this piece of legislation, which is very crucial, being enacted.
“Once it is in place, the catch and release will be a thing
of the past. We have had cases involving high-profile persons and witnesses
shunning coming to court because they were scared.
“They felt that they were not protected at all. So we feel
that the witnesses need to be protected so that all evidence is presented in
court and culprits are brought to book.”
The envisaged Public Interest Disclosure (Protection of
Whistle-blowers) Act is widely expected to help the country fight corruption by
giving informers confidence to expose graft without fear.
Under the proposed law, ZACC staffers who leak names or
identify whistleblowers will face jail terms of up to six months along with
ordinary disciplinary action under legal amendments proposed by the Commission.
At the same time, ZACC will not protect those who
deliberately and maliciously make false reports against others, pretending to
be whistleblowers.
The proposed draft amendment to the Act under which ZACC
operates, which has since been sent to the Office of the President and Cabinet,
seeks to promote a culture of reporting all corrupt activities without fear of
victimisation and with full protection for whistleblowers.
The concealment of the whistleblowers’ identities is
expected to stop the problem of witnesses in high-profile graft cases at
parastatals being harassed through suspensions, transfers, or at times being
charged on frivolous allegations aimed at crippling ZACC investigations.
Justice Matanda-Moyo said the catch and release conception
of ZACC operations is also partly a product of general or public
misunderstanding of court processes.
“The catch and release is almost a song now in the country
but this emanates from misunderstanding of court procedures. It is mainly
emanating from bail procedures. When culprits are granted bail the public takes
it as if they have been acquitted.
“Bail applications are simply a process where the court
decides whether a person is fit to stand trial coming from home or has to face
trial coming from remand prison.
“The considerations are only whether the person will be
able to avail themselves for trial. If evidence is overwhelming that the person
can face trial coming from home, then the law demands that the person faces
trial coming from home.
“If you look at other cases, most people are being
convicted coming from home. Take the case of the former Permanent Secretary for
Mines, Professor Francis Gudyanga, who was convicted of criminal abuse office.
He was coming to court from home. So catch and release is a phenomenon of
misunderstanding of court procedures,” she said.
Justice Matanda Moyo said her Commission was making efforts
to improve on technology to keep pace with offenders.
“We are moving towards that direction. As you know we are
in the era of technology. We have just established our electronic case
management system which we are now using but we now want to link it to Zimra,
ZRP, Central Vehicle Registry and even the courts.
“We really need to embrace technology in fighting
corruption so that we do not unnecessarily lose documents. The manual system is
very cumbersome. You may think you have the crucial documents and the next day
you lose them because somebody has stolen them.
“But right now we are moving towards effective use of
technology and I am happy that right now we are moving in the right direction
although more still needs to be done,” she said. Herald
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