By Staff Reporter
The National Prosecuting Authority of Zimbabwe NPAZ has called for decentralization of resources to promote efficiency in dealing with cases at local level.
Speaking during an engagement meeting organized by Transparency International Zimbabwe (TIZ) in partnership with TellZim News in Masvingo, NPAZ representative Tarisai Muvengi said the centralization and lack of resources was affecting how they work.
He gave an example of forensics which he said were only done in Harare thereby making cases with forensics requirements take time.
“We have a challenge of limited resources and centralization of departments that we work with. Forensics are only done in Harare, so all cases that have forensic requirements take time to deal with because the evidence is send to Harare from across the country and it takes time for them to come back.
“So it is our hope that areas like that will be decentralized. If we have a forensic department here in Masvingo to deal with our cases, that would improve our efficiency,” said Muvengi.
He went on to say another challenge was lack of knowledge and information in the general citizenry which he said makes them not eager to come forward with evidence to help prosecute matters.
“There is lack of societal awareness. People do not know what is and what is not a crime and you find out that someone from town goes to Bhuka area there and discovers that village heads are corruptly selling land and reports.
“When investigations are done, it becomes difficult now to have a person from the area to testify, which means we will rely on information from a non-resident further complicating the matter,” said Muvengi.
He however said they were recording several successes in prosecution in corruption related matters saying the year 2023 had the highest number of corruption related matters which they dealt with.
“I don’t have the statistics at hand but I can confidently say we have success stories in ZACC related matters especially in the year 2023 when we recorded the highest number of convictions,” said Muvengi.
However, residents raised concerns on the treatment of witnesses after testifying where they are given transport reimbursement in local currency at bank rate despite them using US$.
Muvengi however said it was a challenge they were lobbying with the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) to address.
