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Kumbirai Hodzi

Auxilia Katongomara, Chronicle Reporter
GOVERNMENT will confiscate all ill-gotten assets from suspects as soon as they are convicted of corruption, the Acting Prosecutor General Mr Kumbirai Hodzi said yesterday.

He said the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) was strengthening its fight against corruption through the setting up of an Asset, Seizure and Forfeiture Unit.

In an interview, the top prosecutor said:

“One of the exciting things which we are in the process of setting up is an Asset, Seizure and Forfeiture Unit. This unit will focus on the assets that are ill-gotten from the proceeds of crime.

There will be plenty of seizure from persons who would have enriched themselves through crime and bought houses, cars, land, farms and other assets and also the seizure of their bank accounts where ever they are, even international bank accounts, that is the instrument that we will be increasingly using,” said Mr Hodzi.

Without giving names, Mr Hodzi said there were quite a number of high profile corruption matters that would soon be brought before the courts.

“We have a number of high profile corruption matters and they are coming, involving very, very serious economic crimes,” said Mr Hodzi.

He said the NPA was re-orienting and training its prosecutors to ensure that they sharpen their prosecutorial skills to meticulously handle cases.

“Our aim is to ensure that there are high quality matters that go before the courts. We don’t want a situation where the NPA or prosecutorial teams are blamed for inadequacies. There is now deliberate, thorough preparation of cases. We are adopting strategies that ensure that when matters come before the judiciary, the chances of getting acquittals are very low,” he said.

“One of the strategies that we have adopted is that prosecutors are all highly qualified. If they are handling a case there must be a minimum of three prosecutors who are thoroughly conversant with the docket who would have studied the matter and identified if there are any loopholes or defects in the dockets long before set down of trial.”

Soon after his appointment last month, Mr Hodzi set up a joint taskforce comprising prosecutors from the NPA, Special Anti-Corruption Unit from the President’s Office, Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission and the police which is operating from a boardroom in the PG’s Office to efficiently prosecute high profile corruption cases.

The merger, Mr Hodzi said, has strengthened efforts to combat corruption and a number of dockets have been finalised in a short time and are now ready for trial.

One of the high-profile corruption cases is that of flamboyant businessman, Wicknell Chivayo who is facing charges of defrauding the Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) of over $5 million, money laundering and violating Exchange Control Regulations. Chivayo has often boasted of his posh cars, shoes and going to various holiday resorts across the world.

The NPA is also prosecuting a fraud case involving television personality Oscar Pambuka and politician Psychology Maziwisa.  They are accused of swindling the ZPC of $12 650.

The duo allegedly charged ZPC $12 650 for facilitating to have the State broadcaster air news items on the power utility’s behalf and were allegedly paid even though they had not done any work in some circumstances.

Former Cabinet Minister Samuel Undenge was last month jailed for authorising the ZPC to pay the pair’s company for the consultancy job. — @AuxiliaK.