National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) top official Tawanda Zvekare has made startling claims Zimbabwe’s prosecuting arm of the judiciary does not have enough evidence to secure a conviction against Zimbabwe artisanal miners boss Henrietta Rushwaya, who was busted October 2020 trying to smuggle 6,9kg of gold through the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport.

Zvekare, who is NPA Chief Public Prosecutor Special Projects, was speaking at a recent launch of the 2022 Transparency International Corruption Perception Index (CPI) report, which ranked Zimbabwe number 157 out of 180 surveyed countries, a position that makes the southern African country one of the most corrupt territories in the world.

He said the NPA was also facing similar hurdles in securing a conviction against former Public Service Minister Prisca Mupfumira, who was arrested July 2019 charged with corruption involving $95 million from the state pension fund.

“For the serious cases which you were talking about, that’s Henrietta Rushwaya case, the Prisca Mupfumira case and like cases, I would want to say that the threshold for proving a criminal case is proof beyond reasonable doubt, which is a high threshold.

“It may not be discharged easily,” he said.

The veteran prosecutor blamed Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) investigators for letting the NPA down through passing what he described as poorly investigated dockets which often fail the test when they are presented in the courts.

“As NPA, we depend on the investigators, that is the police, that is ZACC,” he said.