The Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) has claimed victory in its first asset forfeiture case at the High Court yesterday after successfully proving that a former Parirenyatwa Hospital worker bought a US$ 100 000 house through illicit means.
ZACC closely working with the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) dragged Russell Mwenye, an ex-Parirenyatwa Hospital Stores Control officer to the High Court to explain how he managed to acquire the US$ 100 000 worth of property in Harare’s Mabvazuva surbub.
The commission successfully proved that Mwenye had acquired the massive property from proceeds of a corrupt tender award to his company prompting Justice Chikowero to order forfeiture of the asset.
“Legal history was made in Zimbabwe on 9 December 2020 in the anti-corruption fight. We are proud at ZACC to have won this case argued for us by the NPA,”
“Zimbabwe’s first ever asset forfeiture in terms of the brand new unexplained wealth order provisions of the Money Laundering & Proceeds of Crime Amendment Act,” the Commission wrote on its Twitter account this morning.
On February 21 this year, Zimbabwe enacted into law unexplained wealth regulations into the Money Laundering and Proceeds of Crime Act of 2013 as part of the drive to curb corruption through empowering respective arms of the law to interrogate suspicious wealth.
Under these new regulations, an unexplained wealth order, which can be obtained by specified authorities (Zimbabwe Revenue Authority and National Prosecuting Authority) without prior notice to the person concerned, requires a person to explain his or her wealth, and provide supporting documentation showing it was lawfully obtained.
This comes at a time there are growing calls for authorities to prioritize asset recovery if the fight against corruption is to yield sustainable outcomes.
“We are working with the NPA and we have submitted over 40 applications to the High Court and the NPA is helping in filing for those. So we have many cases of forfeiture that we are working on. Our Forfeiture Unit is very busy so we are serious there is nothing like catch and release,” ZACC spokesperson, John Makamure told 263Chat in an interview.
“With the new regulations the onus is on the asset holder to prove beyond reasonable doubt that they got their wealth in a clean manner unlike in a criminal case were we have to prove to the Courts that the suspect did wrong,” added Makamure.
Whether the restructured ZACC has performed to expectations remains largely contentious given that some high profile figures who have been accused of prejudicing the state of high sums of money are yet to be investigated and have their properties forfeited.
