Mliswa Elected Into Africa 10 Member Board Against Corruption

By Shingirai Vambe

BARELY two weeks after commemorating the 2022 Africa Anti-Corruption Day, Zimbabwe’s Chairperson for Africa Parliamentary Network Against Corruption (APNAC), Hon Temba Mliswa was last week elected into the Africa 10 member anti corruption board in Benin.

Mliswa together with Parliament staff, Mrs Gutu, Hon Ability Musavaya Gandawa and Hon Memory Mbondiya, attended the Biennial General Meeting in Benin, where they were building synergies in the fight against corruption in Africa.

On the Africa Anti-Corruption Day, Mliswa told Post on Sunday that the only way to fight corruption in Zimbabwe is to first deal with politicians in the highest offices.

Mliswa has for a while now been vocal against government ministers who are involved in shoddy deals and corrupt activities at the expense of the country and citizens. Chief amongst many is the July Moyo Pomona, Fire tender and water pump scandals that rocks Harare.

“it was an honour for Zimbabwe to be part of the general meeting where I was elected to be one of the 10 African Legislators who are fighting and advocating for reduction of corruption in Africa. The board is led by Benin Speaker of Parliament and Hon Louis Gbehounou Vlavonou,” said Mliswa.

He added, Egypt is a good model from which to learn how to fightt corruption and its model of anti-corruption academies is a vital tool to copy.

The APNAC Zimbabwe has been for months now been engaging with relevant stakeholders, conscientising, sharing work plans and equipping critical institutions with information towards the fight against corruption.

Mliswa alleges the Office of the President and Cabinet is seriously compromised as most of the bigger tenders given to influential people and foreign investors are done through the OPC office instead of going through the Procurement Regulatory Authority (PRAZ).

During the just ended workshop in Bulawayo, the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) and PRAZ aired; there is need for alignment of some laws to plug all loopholes used by looters against the county.

Apart from tenders, Zimbabwe is on record with high rates of smuggling of valuable minerals and money laundering. Billions of dollars are lost annually with top government officials being on record of investing and buying properties out of the country using ill-gotten wealth.

It appears that corruption has been normalised as pointing a finger to a corrupt deal is defended, arguing that worse corruption has not been stopped.

With most high level corruption cases taking very long to be concluded, a majority have been acquitted for the evidence was porous.

The term catch and release now makes rounds with any new arrest seeing the case losing steam and the suspect is released.