Arrest of corrupt officials imminent: Tsvangirai

Addressing hundreds of people attending the handover of CDF projects in Glen View North Constituency, Tsvangirai said he was aware of ministers who abused the CDF and steps were now being taken to arrest them as a matter of urgency.

He said Zimbabweans should not be fooled by Attorney General, Johannes Tomana, who recently ordered the Anti-Corruption Commission of Zimbabwe (ACCZ) to stop arresting MP’s who abused the funds.

“Corruption is corruption and those who stole money (CDFs) will be arrested even if they are government ministers,” said Tsvangirai. “No one will stop the Anti-Corruption Commission from arresting corrupt ministers and MPs because as a Government we have adopted a zero tolerance on corruption.”Corruption is not only limited to the CDF as several influential people, including Zanu PF cabinet ministers have been linked to the looting of diamonds, gold, farming inputs, land and even shares in private companies.

Sources said three senior Zanu PF ministers and two from MDC-T allegedly abused their CDF and are a target of arrest by the ACCZ soon. Mugabe normally approves the arrest of his ministers, but it could not be established yesterday whether he had finally given the ACCZ permission to do so.

Efforts to get a comment from ACCZ chairman, Denford Chirindo, were fruitless yesterday. But Tsvangirai yesterday insisted the ACCZ, for long perceived to be a toothless body targeting the small fish only, has now been empowered to arrest all those involved in corruption regardless of their political status.

He said the arrest of MPs and Ministers would continue until all the 210 constituencies in the country have accounted for the funds they received from treasury to develop their constituencies.

Tsvangirai said it was shocking that some MPs used the funds to marry more wives, while others squandered the money on luxuries and beer drinking binges.

Others never utilised the funds after all. So far, four MPs, three from MDC-T and one from Zanu PF, have been arrested after they were accused of looting the US$8 million CDF which saw each of the 210 MP’s in the country getting US$50 000 to develop their areas.

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But Attorney General, Johannes Tomana has however, tried to stop the arrests until June this year claiming that the Commission and Ministry of Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs were handling the issue in a “clumsy” manner. He ordered them to do a thorough audit of all the constituencies and present a report to him by mid-June.

The ACCZ and the ministry have rebuffed Tomana, but the AG’s office has responded by dropping charges against the MPs arrested so far.Analysts are of the view that by withdrawing the charges, Tomana wanted to prove that he was more powerful than the ACCZ which can only investigate and arrest suspects, but cannot prosecute as such powers are vested in the Attorney General’s office.

GOVT TO ALLOCATE MORE FUNDS TO MPS: PM

Tsvangirai said despite the looting of the CDF, government was planning to allocate more funds to MPs to enable them to implement more developmental projects in their constituencies.

He said MP’s were better placed to know projects which people in their areas wanted. “There is no going back on CDF. Money allocated to the fund will be increased soon because we want MP’s to invest in community development projects which benefit the ordinary people,” said the Prime Minister.

Among the CDF projects Glen View North MP Fani Munengami (MDC-T) implemented was the computerisation of schools in the area, installation of electricity at Glen View 3 School and the drilling of boreholes and rehabilitation of social infrastructure in the constituency.