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Writes Kumbirai Mafunda
A socio-economic justice campaigner has hauled the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) and the National Social Security Authority (NSSA) to court, seeking an order compelling the country’s anti-corruption agency, to probe an opaque land acquisition transaction, done by the state-run pension fund more than twenty years ago.
Munashe Masiyiwa, a socio-economic justice campaigner, applied to the Harare High Court on 10 October 2024 and cited ZACC and NSSA as respondents.
In the application, Masiyiwa, who is represented by Obey Shava of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, stated that he learned through perusing the Auditor-General’s annual report for 2023 on State-Owned Enterprises and Parastatals, that NSSA had in 2003 purchased a property in Chegutu in Mashonaland West province as part of its fund investments under some murky circumstances, which transaction he wants ZACC to investigate as part of its constitutional mandate.
According to Masiyiwa, the Auditor-General’s annual report revealed that NSSA had not recovered 526 hectares of land purchased in Chegutu in 2003.
The socio-economic justice campaigner protested that NSSA neither responded nor initiated investigations as he had demanded in his letter written to the state-run pension fund on 25 July 2024, where he asked it to investigate the circumstances surrounding the purchase of 526 hectares of land in Chegutu in 2003, which land has not yet been recovered by NSSA.
This, Masiyiwa said, prompted him to file an application at Harare High Court on 10 October 2024 requesting ZACC, which he said is legally mandated to investigate matters of public interest and take remedial action where necessary, to investigate the circumstances pertaining to the purchase of the land by NSSA, which he described as a delinquent institution, and make its findings public.
Masiyiwa said ZACC’s inaction in the face of reasonable suspicion of corruption is an egregious dereliction of duty, which entitles him to petition the High Court seeking an order to compel the anti-corruption agency, to discharge its constitutionally prescribed obligation.
Masiyiwa argued that ZACC, whose obligation is to combat corruption in instances where a complaint and request for investigation has been disregarded, failed to discharge its obligation to investigate the circumstances surrounding the purchase of 526 hectares of land in Chegutu in 2003, which land has not yet been recovered by NSSA.
The socio-economic justice campaigner, wants the High Court to declare that ZACC’s failure to act upon his complaint or to investigate the circumstances surrounding the acquisition of the piece of land in Chegutu measuring 526 hectares by NSSA to be a breach of section 255(1) of the Constitution.
He also wants the High Court to direct ZACC to investigate the acquisition of the piece of land in Chegutu measuring 526 hectares by NSSA.
In addition, Masiyiwa, wants the High Court to direct ZACC to make public within 30 days, the findings of its investigations into the acquisition of the piece of land in Chegutu measuring 526 hectares by NSSA.