COMMISSIONS WATCH 17th July 2019 [POWERS OF ARREST FOR
ZACC OFFICERS: WHAT IT MEANS]
COMMISSIONS WATCH
ZIMBABWE ANTI-CORRUPTION COMMISSION
[17th July 2019]
POWERS OF ARREST FOR ZACC OFFICERS: WHAT IT MEANS
Over the years the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission [ZACC] has
been at the receiving end of insults and derision from the general public,
which felt it was doing less than it should to contain corruption. In an
attempt to strengthen ZACC by giving its officers more powers, on 28th
June, the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs gazetted
Statutory Instrument 143/2019, the Criminal Procedure and Evidence
(Designation of Peace Officers) (Amendment) Notice, 2019 (No. 3) [link],
which designates ZACC’s officers as “peace officers” for all purposes under
the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act. In this Commissions Watch we
shall call the Amendment Notice “SI 143”.
If SI 143 is legally valid – and we shall deal with that question below – it will
give officers of ZACC powers of arrest and will enhance ZACC’s capacity to
fight against corruption in Zimbabwe. As the new chairperson of ZACC,
Mrs Justice Loice Matanda-Moyo, said shortly after the SI was gazetted:
“Recently, ZACC was given arresting powers. This came as exciting
news. Without arresting powers, our job was difficult as we were
depending on police officers. When ZACC officers met the criminals,
they could not arrest the suspects but had to wait for police officers, and
while they waited the criminals would just run away and never be
found.”
One might observe incidentally that the Minister seems not to have
consulted ZACC before publishing SI 143, since it came as “exciting news”
to ZACC’s chairperson.
Unpacking the Statutory Instrument
SI 143 does not explain the legal consequence of making ZACC officers
“peace officers”, and to understand it one must look at the Act under which
it was made, the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act.
Peace officers and their powers
The Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act [link] gives law enforcement
powers to what it calls “peace officers”, a broad class of officials including
police officers, prison officers, immigration officers and traditional leaders.
The Act allows the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs to
designate other persons as peace officers, and that is what he has done for
ZACC’s officers in SI 143.
Under the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act peace officers have the
following powers: