ZIMBABWEANS are reportedly smuggling explosives for use in committing crimes in neighbouring South Africa, NewsDay has leant.
Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) chairperson Justice Loice Matanda-Moyo revealed this during a high-level National Anti-Corruption Strategy (Nacs) steering committee meeting held in Harare yesterday.
“Recently explosives were also smuggled from Zimbabwe to South Africa and during (a recent) meeting I was made to understand that the explosives were used to hit ATMs (automated teller machines) in South Africa. We cannot show such a lack of humanity as Zimbabweans,” she said.
Matanda-Moyo said she went to South Africa recently where she met officials from that country’s police service and the special investigations unit who exposed the porosity of the Zimbabwean borders.
“The South African authorities are always arresting Zimbabweans who would have crossed the borders with smuggled goods. How is that happening? Why are they not caught on the Zimbabwean side? We really need to introspect.
“The porosity of our borders is also causing the country to lose resources. Recently, our gold was forfeited in South Africa. Cigarettes are also being forfeited,” she charged.
The Nacs steering committee is composed of key ministries such as the Finance, Home Affairs, Justice and government institutions such as Zacc, the National Prosecuting Authority, Zimbabwe Republic Police, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe’s Financial Intelligence Unit, Zimbabwe Revenue Authority, Auditor-General and Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, among others.
In their third quarter report to the Nacs steering committee, police said they were facing challenges investigating the proceeds of corruption across the borders.
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“Challenges were experienced in following the money trail because of the complexity of cash transactions where some transactions involved foreign jurisdictions,” police said.
“Asset forfeiture was a new phenomenon in terms of policing activities. The majority of the members were not yet privy in terms of the necessary procedures to be followed, hence the need for training to cover the majority of the members.”
