SYDNEY MUBAIWA
GWERU-The Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) has been castigated for concentrating on petty crimes while those who have committed earth shattering crimes are walking scot free.
Prominent Gweru lawyer Brian Dube in an interview said government should allocate adequate resources to the police so that they effectively fight crime than for ZACC to go for petty crimes like theft of vehicle parts.
“The challenge with our institutions is resource allocation, you will find out that big wigs at some institutions get involved in corruption scandals but they won’t get arrested because the institution does not have enough resources to carry out their mandate.
“We are calling for the parliament to craft policies that will allow enough resource allocation to our police and other institutions so that all crimes are dealt with without any challenges and once the rot in the system is addressed you will not see the catch and release syndrome,” he said.
The comments follow the recent arrest by ZACC of a Chaplin High School driver Davie Maravanyika (58) for allegedly inflating the cost of a tractor part.
Maravanyika appeared before the Gweru Provincial Magistrate Beaulity Dube on Friday last week facing fraud charges.
According to court papers, it is alleged that Maravanyika was tasked by the school to source quotations for a Weldon part for the school’s tractor.
He allegedly obtained a verbal quotation of US$35 plus US$20 for filling from Emmanuel Gaza who is the managing director of Gazaet (Pvt) Ltd.
On January 29, Maravanyika submitted a fraudulent quotation to the school inflating the price to US$355.
When the school bursar contacted Gazaet for payment, Gaza refused to accept the money and disowned Maravanyika’s quotation.
A team of ZACC officials was roped in and it was discovered that the quotation was never issued by Gazaet and its serial number did not match their official records.
Maravanyika was arrested on February 27 and was arraigned before the courts represented by prominent Gweru Lawyer Advocate Thomas Militao.
He was granted US$100 bail and ordered not to interfere with state witnesses, to reside at his given address and to report to ZACC Gweru offices every week. His trial is set to begin on March 20, 2025.
Social commentator, Shelfer Phiri-Mbudzi said, while crime should never be tolerated at any level, but for ZACC to arrest a school tractor driver for a vehicle part theft is unacceptable.
“ZACC should never be involved in petty crimes of US20, the institution was established to deal specifically with white collar crimes involving big wigs in society who are bent on destroying the country.
“This sends the wrong message to white collar offenders because they know they can get away with murder as ZACC will be preoccupied with petty crimes.
“If ZACC concentrate on small fish, which are too many, when will it go for the big fish, by the time they finish with small fish, the big fish will be untouchable and would have covered their tracks.
“Surely as a nation we are not going anywhere at this rate, those crimes are for the police to deal with,” she said.
