By Mugove Tafirenyika
Independent Norton MP Temba Mliswa yesterday called for the arrest of Higher Education minister Jonathan Moyo on allegations of abuse of public funds.
Moyo was recently in the eye of a storm over corruption allegations that saw him appear before the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc). He was charged with embezzling over $400 000 from the Zimbabwe Manpower Development Fund (Zimdef).
Moyo, who flatly denies abusing the Zimdef funds, has successfully lodged an appeal with the Constitutional Court (Con-Court) stopping his arrest and prosecution, arguing that Zacc is not empowered to do so.
Contributing to a question and answer session in the National Assembly yesterday, Mliswa took Home Affairs minister Ignatius Chombo to task over the alleged reluctance by the police to arrest Moyo.
“The Con-Court ruled that Moyo should not be arrested but does that stop the ZRP from instituting an arrest? When someone commits a crime, they should be arrested and go to Rotten Row (Magistrates) Court. I have been arrested 70 times myself and was acquitted 70 times and that must apply to everyone,” Mliswa said.
“You also wrote a letter exonerating Moyo. Is it because the president (Robert Mugabe) has issued an order of immunity to protect him yet his deputy (Godfrey Gandawa) was arrested?”
Chombo sprang to Moyo’s defence, arguing that while Mugabe had not ordered Moyo’s protection, the police does not arrest people on account of media reports.
“The ZRP will arrest anyone where there is sufficient evidence that a crime was committed but it does not take orders from the media but if the honourable member has evidence to that effect, he must bring it forth,” Chombo said.
Further attempts by Mliswa to extract a satisfactory answer from Chombo hit a brick wall, with the Zanu PF secretary for administration insisting that he had done justice to the question. Daily News
