Matabeleland South, a province abundantly blessed with astronomical value of human capital and natural resources is yet to develop its dilapidated roads and poor infrastructure mainly due to corruption, illicit financial flows and the fraudulent trend of bad leadership. As a result, CYDT continues to intensify its efforts of denouncing and battling corruption in all communal structures through its highly effective offline and online programs.
With these programs, the whistle blowing organisation has constantly managed to monitor and pile pressure on all stakeholders, forcing these bodies to act and prioritise the fight against corruption
Recently, CYDT conducted a hugely successful radio program on Skyz Metro FM which managed to unpack the state of corruption in the Artisanal and Small Scale Mining sector (ASM) as well as explore the work being done by stakeholders in battling corruption.
Titled “Access to justice, transparency and social cohesion” the fruitful program featured Dr Nyaude from Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) and Member of Parliament, Honorable Jesmine Tofa, who is also a member of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Mines and Mining Development as panelists.
The panelists agreed that corruption is indeed present in the mining sector but promised they are tirelessly working towards achieving a corruption free ASM.
With regards to strategies in place for fighting corruption, Dr Nyaude said there is a National Anti-Corruption Strategy which was launched last year by ZACC as a strategy to increase and consolidate the consensus around the fight against corruption
He said that ZACC decided to spearhead the national anti-corruption strategy in which they made some consultation around the whole country to come up with views from citizens as well as the public sector and private organizations in terms of how best the national strategy to fight corruption was to be designed.
Dr Nyaude revealed that ZACC is working on “decentralising its offices which will make it easy for locals to report corruption cases in ZACC offices closer to them.” Dr Nyaude also said their social media accounts are active, and those who have internet can get hold of them online. This comes after young people inquired about the institutions available to report their corruption cases at local level.
Since its formation, ZACC has been constantly accused of being a “catch and release” organisation as all individuals accused of corruption have been questioned by ZACC and let go without serving jail term. Dr Nyaude contested these allegations, telling listeners that, “ZACC is only responsible for investigating and exposing” not prosecuting. They are not the organisation that sends people in jail but the courts.
Another issue discussed was the Draft Mines and Minerals Bill. On the progress that has been made towards completion of the Draft Mines and Minerals Amendment Bill that is anticipated to give further impetus to the fight against corruption and towards addressing mining title disputes which are a reflection of lack of transparency and accountability in the sector, Honorable Toffa explained that the bill has been completed and waiting for all stakeholders to discuss and deliberate the terms of the Bill in parliament. She explained that they had proposed the formalisation of the Artisanal and Small Scale Miners (ASM) sector and they were waiting to see if these proposals were included in the Bill.
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