Zacc is controlled by Mugabe, says Mnangagwa

VICE-PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa has said the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) worked directly under President Robert Mugabe's Office.

Addressing the Fourth Excellence in Corporate Governance awards presentation dinner in the capital on Thursday, Mnangagwa said government was motivated to clamp down on corruption and had thus given Zacc more teeth.

"Government has passed relevant anti-corruption laws and established an Anti-Corruption Commission, which has been given more teeth and gravitas by operating directly from the Office of the President and Cabinet," he said.

Mnangagwa was recently accused by Higher Education minister Jonathan Moyo of influencing Zacc investigations in alleged Zanu-PF succession politics in the fractured governing party.

The Vice-President, who has always spoken against corruption, warned the private sector against aiding graft, saying their actions were largely to blame for the economic collapse.

"I want to argue that the private sector inadvertently supports corruption in the public sector. In nearly all reported cases of public sector corruption, the private sector players have been exposed as viable conduits to siphon off public funds," he said.

Mnangagwa also blamed the banking sector for the collapse of the Zimbabwe dollar in 2008, saying greedy bankers were at the centre of the rot.

He said poor corporate governance practices resulted from inadequate oversight and regulation.

"This allowed bank directors and managers to siphon depositors' monies and corruptly lent it to each others, leaving banks to collapse, a situation that partly contributed to the failure of our own currency," the VP said.

"The experiences that Zimbabweans went through during the Zimbabwe dollar era, starting as early as about 2005 and climaxing to 2008, have a lot to do with lack of confidence in our banking system today."