By Farayi Machamire
Harare businessman Lovemore Kurotwi has approached the newly installed Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) in a bid to have former Mines minister Obert Mpofu face the music for allegations of corruption and involvement in missing diamond revenues.
Riding on a renewed anti-corruption wave-given-impetus by President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s call on Zacc to fight corruption without fear or favour, Kurotwi revived his fight with Mpofu which has been brought before parliament as well as the office of former president Robert Mugabe with all efforts hitting a brick wall.
“This is a new regime so we expect action to be taken,” Kurotwi told Zim Morning Post.
“Anyone who has been abused will not stop until justice is done. These people abused office and to a common person you only stop when justice prevails. Even if you were in my shoes you were not going to keep quiet.”
On the allegations against the ex-Mines Minister, Kurotwi said: “Mpofu confiscated 1,4 million carats of diamonds. He also confiscated mining equipment worth $14 million and cash from MMCZ amounting to $10.6 million.”
Kurotwi spoke as Zacc has for years been hovering around Mpofu with the latest submissions posing as a litmus test for the newly installed anti-graft body which has said they will take on each matter head on.
The former Zacc head of investigations, Commissioner Goodson Nguni had previous cleared Mpofu along with then Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister Joram Gumbo and then Information Communication Technology and Cyber Security Minister, Supa Mandiwanzira of any wrong doing.
At that time Nguni claimed the public was supplying it with false information, alleging that some of the charges against the trio were motivated by sour grapes.
Gumbo and Mandiwanzira were also alleged to have been involved in corrupt deals at Air Zimbabwe and NetOne.
“…citizens of this country have written letters making allegations against Minister Obert Mpofu (when he was Mines and Mining Development). But the story that (the whistleblower) gave us has a lot of false information and half-truths, half backed information that does not have evidence,” Nguni said.
“For example, he alleges that this minister took his $10.6 million. It is a lie. We asked the Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe. They told us that they never had $10 million in their account and certainly Minister Mpofu never took any money from MMCZ.
“We got a court order; we got the court documents and bank statements. There is no money like $10 million and Minister Mpofu did not take money from MMCZ; it’s a lie…So we urge the public not to give us lies.
“You are upset over somebody who has fired you and start making stories about them saying they are corrupt while they are not corrupt. There is no evidence to link Minister Mpofu to any criminal activities and we are yet to be given that story,” Nguni said.
Zacc chair Justice Loice Matanda-Moyo told state media last week that she had received reports of former commissioners who took dockets and have not returned them.
“I have tasked the investigations department to compile the list of all dockets that are missing,” she said, in an ominous sign of prevalent under hand dealings by the previous commission. ZimmorningPost
