MDC ministers under probe for wealth accumulation

SEVERAL Ministers from the two formations of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) have been placed under investigations over alleged wealth accumulation in what is perceived to be part of efforts by hardliners in Zanu-PF to boost President Robert Mugabe's re-election bid in the forthcoming polls.

Highly-placed sources revealed this week that Zanu-PF was desperate to expose real or imagined  corrupt dealings by its governing partners to discredit them in the eyes of the voters in elections President Mugabe's party wants held this year.

Zanu-PF spin-doctors would soon be revealing the names of targeted MDC ministers in the media as part of a wider smear campaign. The State media recently claimed that Finance Minister Tendai Biti was under probe, with police spokesperson Wayne Bvudzijena, denying such an investigation of the MDC-T secretary general.

Biti is being accused of transferring US$20 million from the International Monetary Fund Special Drawing Rights into an FBC Bank account and then to Interfin Bank, in violation of the law.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai as well as the leader of the rival MDC formation, Welshman Ncube are also among those targeted by Zanu-PF.

While MDC insiders have been quick to dismiss allegations against their ministers as trumped up charges meant to discredit them ahead of polls, there has been public concern over the perceived "sudden" opulence displayed by some of the MDC-T's young ministers even though sources say it pales in comparison to the accumulation of their Zanu-PF counterparts.

So far, MDC-T councillors countrywide have been implicated in corrupt dealings especially in the allocation of land in their respective municipalities as well as stripping councils of their assets.

Giving credence to speculation the MDC ministers are targeted, writing in the State media on Saturday, Nathaniel Manheru, who iS thought to be privy to the goings-on in Zanu-PF, appeared to make reference to the probe.

He said a list of offending MDC figures would be released in due course adding that the "noise" being made about diamond revenues was meant to camouflage looting by Zanu-PF's rivals.

But police spokesman, Bvudzijena in a brief telephone interview that he was not aware of any probe targeting MDC ministers in the coalition government.

"I am not aware of such a probe," he said.