NPA ring-fences prosecutors

Prosecutors will now be housed in their own blocks of flats to curb corruption and to offer protection to those handling high-profile and sensitive cases in line with President Mnangagwa's strategy to ring-fence the teams.


Government will soon be buying suitable accommodation for the first batch of prosecutors handling special cases and has provided funds to buy 101 Kwame Nkrumah Avenue at the eastern end of Harare city centre and within a block or two of the High and Supreme Courts for the new offices for the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).

Renovations are underway at the new base and prosecutors are expected to move from rented offices at Corner House along Samora Machel Avenue to the newly-acquired building soon.

The same building is expected to also accommodate the NPA's sister agencies like the Special Anti-Corruption Unit (SACU) and Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU). The programme for prosecutorial villages starts with prosecutors in Harare before cascading to other provinces countrywide.

For the first time in a decade all the prosecutors in charge of operations have been bought vehicles and needed equipment such as laptops and cellphones as part of the Second Republic's commitment to upgrading the welfare of the NPA officials.

In an interview, the Prosecutor General Mr Kumbirai Hodzi said the NPA was receiving overwhelming support from the President and the Government at large.

"As part of the President's strategy to ring-fence the prosecutors, they will be put in prosecutorial villages and sterilised from any communication or any potential communication from characters that are likely to compromise them," he said.

"The Ministries of Local Government and Public Works as well as that of National Housing and Social Amenities have taken teams in the province to identify office space and houses for prosecutorial teams and this has never happened before. In each province, pieces of land have been identified where we can construct the prosecutorial villages."

Mr Hodzi said in Harare, Government has since identified a place to house those handling high profile cases.

"We have identified blocks of flats that are going to be purchased for prosecutors and those will be self-contained," he said.

"They will have their supermarkets and all their amenities that are required by the prosecutors so that they are not just syndroming in the ordinary supermarkets or places of entertainment."

Mr Hodzi said the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development has given the biggest budget to the Prosecutor General's office in the history of this country.

"The President together with Treasury after seeing where we are operating from, have allocated funds to the NPA to buy a very good office building which will house all the prosecutors in Harare.

"The offices will also accommodate some of our sister agencies like members from the Judicial Service Commission, the FIU and other sister organisations including the Special Anti-Corruption Unit," he said.

Mr Hodzi said they had successfully recruited 300 prosecutors and other key officers with contingency measures for training them in place so they can do their job well.

"We have recruited the prosecutors and are going to all the stations even the remotest areas. The money to train them in terms of professionalism has also been put in place," he said.