COMMISSIONS WATCH 17th July 2019 [POWERS OF ARREST FOR ZACC OFFICERS: WHAT IT MEANS] reasonably suspected of corruption, abuse of power and other improper conduct which falls within the Commission’s jurisdiction.” This provision would have been worded differently if the constitutionmakers had envisaged ZACC’s officers being given powers of arrest rather than merely recommending that persons be arrested. • ZACC is a constitutional commission and its functions are laid down in the Constitution. It is possible to extend those functions through section 321 of the Constitution, which states that “An Act of Parliament may confer additional functions on a Commission”; but SI 143 is not an Act of Parliament even though it is made in terms of one. • Even if it were legal to designate ZACC’s officers as peace officers it should not be “for all purposes”, because that would empower them to arrest people for crimes unrelated to corruption. This is too wide. The Schedule to the Anti-Corruption Act, which gives ZACC additional powers, sets out a long list of crimes for which ZACC may recommend prosecution; the suggestion is that those and those alone are the crimes with which ZACC must concern itself. Conclusion SI 143 is yet another of the statutory instruments published recently to give effect to important government programmes ‒ in this case the anticorruption drive ‒ whose legality is open to doubt. Ministers who need legislation to underpin their policies would be better advised to approach Parliament and persuade it to pass an appropriate Act of Parliament, rather than resorting to statutory instruments which are open to legal challenge. Veritas makes every effort to ensure reliable information, but cannot take legal responsibility for information supplied. If you are looking for legislation please look for it on www.veritaszim.net If you have any questions or wish to subscribe or unsubscribe from this mailing list please email veritas@mango.zw Follow us on (+263 71 893 3633) This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.