Mnangagwa orders top officials to declare assets

Zimbabwe will hold elections in four to five months, a newspaper quoted President Emmerson Mnangagwa as saying. Picture: Reuters/Philimon Bulawayo/File Photo

Zimbabwe will hold elections in four to five months, a newspaper quoted President Emmerson Mnangagwa as saying. Picture: Reuters/Philimon Bulawayo/File Photo

Published Jan 23, 2018

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Harare - Zimbabwe has given cabinet

ministers and senior government officials until the end of

February to declare their assets as new President Emmerson

Mnangagwa seeks to foster transparency and fight corruption.

Mnangagwa, 75, took power after Robert Mugabe was toppled by

the military. He immediately promised to tackle corruption,

especially in public institutions.

Misheck Sibanda, chief secretary to the president and

cabinet, said in a statement that it was now mandatory for

cabinet ministers, their deputies, senior government officials

and bosses of state-owned businesses to declare their assets.

The officials will be required to disclose details on their

real estate, other property valued above $100,000, and

shareholdings in businesses by Febraury 28.

"The president expects the full and urgent cooperation of

all the affected office bearers," Sibanda said.

Mnangagwa, who is attending the World Economic Forum in

Davos, the first time by a Zimbabwean president, is trying to

break with past policies of Mugabe in a bid to lure foreign

investment and end the country's international pariah status.

Under Mugabe's near four-decade rule, few government

officials were arrested for corruption.

When the military announced it had put Mugabe under house

arrest on Nov. 15, it said it was targeting criminals that

surrounded the 93-year-old leader.

Since then, three former government ministers and allies of

Mugabe have been arrested and charged in court for criminal

abuse of office. The trio denies the charges and say they are

being persecuted for supporting Mugabe and his wife Grace. 

Reuters

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