Former Finance Minister Ignatious Chombo re-arrested

Former Finance minister Ignatious Chombo has been arrested by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission on fraud allegation and criminal abuse of duty as public officer.
According to ZACC sources Chombo was arrested on charges arising from the Uchena Land Commission report presented to president Emmerson Mnanagwa in 2019.
The commission reported that land barons, housing cooperative leaders, property developers and politically-connected people illegally sold $3 billion worth of urban state land since 2005 and pocketed most of the cash.
The commission also recommended that there must be a lifestyle audit on all the officers who were involved in allocation, planning, valuations, survey, and allocation of commonage, creation and transfer of title) since 2005 amid claims of abuse of office, receiving bribes, and general corrupt conduct.
The report has identified politically connected politicians, land barons, property developers and housing cooperative leaders’ involvement in 431 cases of suspected corruption.
“The Commission established that generally, sale of urban state land, planning and development took place on 91 farms which were acquired by the Ministry responsible for lands and handed over for urban development to the Ministry responsible for Local Government,” Land Commission chairperson Justice Tendai Uchena said when he presented the Commission of inquiry report to the presidium.