-as graft agency cries foul over NPA
MARTIN MAWAYA
HARARE-The Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC ) maintained that the Harare city council Town clerk Hosiah Chipanga and four others are criminally liable for the fraudulent awarding of the tender and should defend their actions in court, despite their withdrawal of charges by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).
In a statement the anti-graft agency said it is looking into the matter and will be preferring new charges against the five.
The NPA withdrawn charges against Chipanga, Never Murerwa (Supply Chain Manager), Denford Zhungu (Principal Accountant), Tawanda Mutenhabundo (Engineering Technician), and Artkins Mandaza (Principal Contracts Administrator) in a US$9 million street light tender case.
The NPA only indicted Harare City Council Principal Buyer, Jabulani Mukomazi.
“ZACC respects the position taken by the NPA and acknowledges that it is the mandate of the prosecuting authority to institute and manage criminal prosecutions in Zimbabwe. The Commission however, maintains that the accused persons are criminally liable for the fraudulent awarding of the tender and should defend their actions in court.
“Accordingly, ZACC is looking into the matter and will be preferring new charges against the five accused persons,” reads the ZACC statement released this afternoon.
In 2021, the then ZACC chairperson Justice Loice Matanda-Moyo told a media briefing during the United Nations International Anti-Corruption Day that they cannot be blamed for failure of prosecuting high profile cases by the NPA.
Moyo is the current Prosecutor General after she was moved from ZACC by President Mnangagwa in 2023.
Most of the high profile corruption cases that collapsed in courts includes the US$20 million Drax Consult SAGL tender and parceling out of State land among others.
