PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa has picked Foreign Affairs & International Trade Minister Sibusiso Busi Moyo’s wife as the new chairperson of the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC).

Mnangagwa has since written to the Standing Rules and Orders Committee (SROC) of parliament informing it of his decision to appoint Justice Loice Matanda-Moyo (pictured) as Zacc chairperson.

Zanu PF and MDC chief whips Pupurai Togarepi and Prosper Mutseyami are part of the 26-member SROC.

The development comes as the Parliamnet’s committee is in the middle of selecting eight other members of the commission from a large pool of 130 applicants vying for the posts.

These include former newspaper editors Geoffrey Nyarota and Tommy Sithole; former clerk of parliament Austin Zvoma and ex-MDC MPs Jessie Majome, Gabriel Chaibva and Blessing Chebundo.

Mnangagwa dissolved the previous anti-graft body chaired by Job Whabira in January this year following claims of ineffectiveness and corruption by the very commissioners.

Mnangagwa has pledged to deal with rampant corruption in the country, although critics dismiss it as lip service.

Of the 130 names, the SROC will shortlist 12 for interviews.

Mnangagwa’s decision has, however, left the committee sharply divided after some of the members argued that she was not the most suitable candidate because she is married to the Foreign Affairs minister.

The MPs expressed their reservations at a meeting at parliament on Tuesday last week.

According to sources who attended the meeting, MDC members of the SROC argued that Matanda-Moyo’s appointment would raise serious questions about her impartiality since her husband was a cabinet minister.

An MP who sits in the SROC said: “Mudenda read the letter to us and afterwards there was a heated debate over the issue and when Mudenda realised that he was losing the debate amid fierce resistance from MDC MPs who felt that the appointment would be inappropriate, he decided to put the matter to vote.

“MDC legislators then requested for more time to research on Matanda-Moyo, but Mudenda stuck to his guns and ordered the vote to proceed. The reason for his stance was that he had been given the instruction to ensure that she is approved immediately. MDC MPs abstained from the vote, but Zanu PF MPs went ahead and unanimously approved of her.”

Matanda-Moyo has been a High Court judge since 2013

Before her appointment as a High Court judge, Matanda-Moyo was the president of the Labour Court and at one stage, she was director of public prosecutions in the Attorney-General’s Office.

Independent