ZACC’s Thin Ranks Risk Losing the Corruption Fight

The Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission warns that severe understaffing is weakening investigations and case processing (image source)

HARARE — The Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) says it is severely understaffed, a shortfall that officials warn is hampering investigations, slowing case processing and weakening anti-corruption enforcement across the country. Commission sources told the press that investigative teams are stretched thin, with a growing docket of complex cases that require forensic accounting, legal support and field investigators. Limited personnel have lengthened inquiry timelines and increased reliance on overstretched staff who must cover multiple provinces and case types. The staffing gap, the commission said, undermines its ability to follow up on leads and compile prosecution-ready files within statutory deadlines.

Operational consequences are already visible. Delays in investigations increase the risk of evidence deterioration, witness intimidation and statutory time lapses that can blunt prosecutorial options. Legal practitioners and civil-society monitors warn that chronic understaffing may erode public confidence in anti-corruption institutions and create space for impunity if high-profile matters stall without resolution.

ZACC leadership has signalled a partial remedy: plans to recruit additional investigators and strengthen capacity in specialist areas such as forensic accounting and digital forensics. Earlier recruitment drives aimed to add roughly 30 investigators to the workforce, a step intended to expand field capacity and reduce caseload pressure per investigator. Officials said recruitment alone will not suffice; parallel investments in training, information-management systems and inter-agency cooperation are essential for sustained gains.

Budgetary constraints and a public-service hiring freeze complicate rapid scaling. Municipal and national budget priorities, plus fiscal rules limiting wage bills, restrict how fast ZACC can fill vacancies. Governance analysts stressed that without ring-fenced funding for anti-corruption operations, recruitment exercises risk becoming one-off fixes rather than part of a long-term staffing strategy. Civil-society groups urged a two-track approach: immediate temporary secondments from related agencies and donors to clear backlog cases, coupled with medium-term structural reforms to professionalise the commission. They recommended performance metrics tied to case clearance rates and stronger protections for whistle-blowers and investigators to reduce attrition from threats and political pressure.

Legal experts also called for better coordination with the National Prosecuting Authority to streamline docket transfer and reduce time lost in procedural handovers. Enhancing digital case-management and evidence-preservation tools would allow smaller teams to work more productively, they said, multiplying the impact of each new hire.

“Understaffing risks turning a national anti-corruption mandate into an aspiration; capacity must match the commission’s legal mandate,” a governance analyst said.