BY KENNETH NYANGANI THE Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) is reportedly targeting local authorities ahead of the 2023 elections in a bid to weed out corrupt elements.

Yesterday, Zacc pounced on Guruve chief executive officer Tinos Marisa who is facing abuse of office charges.

Marisa was arrested in the morning on various charges, among them theft of bricks, drilling boreholes at his farm using council property and misuse of devolution funds.

The arrest of Marisa comes barely a week after 11 Mutare city councillors were arrested for defying a directive by Local Government minister July Moyo and increased their allowances above those gazetted by the ministry.

They appeared in court and were granted $40 000 bail each. They will be back in court tomorrow.

Last Friday, Zacc investigators arrested six Norton councillors affiliated to the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) for parcelling out stands in undesignated open spaces.

Contacted for comment on Marisa’s arrest, Guruve Rural district council chairperson Ngoni Jeke said: “At the moment I don’t know what is happening since I am out of office. I will find out if this true.”

It is alleged that Marisa owns several pieces of land in Guruve.

Marisa is expected to appear in court soon in Bindura where he was taken yesterday.

Zacc spokesperson John Makamure told NewsDay that there was an ongoing Zacc operation targeting local authorities.

“There is an ongoing operation, which we called review and compliance of proper procedures in local councils and other departments,” Makamure said.

CCC deputy spokesperson Gift Siziba condemned the arrests saying they were politically-motivated.

“It’s clear persecution, people are too eager to tarnish the intention, objectives and the image of the opposition in different parts of the country, and to make sure they destabilise the party from its programmes.

“It is clear political persecution. We have the 2023 elections which are coming, and so our councils will be destabilised because we preside over a majority of them in the country,” he said.

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