Alex Tawanda Magaisa a law lecturer in the United Kingdom has argued that Vice President Constantino Chiwenga violated the national Constitution of Zimbabwe by accepting car presents from Sakunda Holdings boss, Kuda Tagwirei.
The former advisor to the former the late founding member of the opposition MDC, Morgan Tsvangirai said that the gifts created a conflict of interest. He said:
Section 106(2) of the Constitution prohibits Vice-Presidents from “expos[ing] themselves to any situation involving the risk of a conflict between their official responsibilities and private interests”. In designing this provision, inspiration was drawn from rules that apply to directors of corporations. The law of companies has for years prohibited directors from getting into situations that create conflict between their interests and the interests of the company. The key in this particular case is that a Vice President must not “expose” himself to a situation that involves the “risk” of a conflict of interest. The mere presence of a risk is enough to trigger a breach of the provision.
His reasoning is consistent with that of other analysts who have opined that Tagwirei’s gifts to Chiwenga suggested how much influence the Sakunda boss had over political elites in the country.
Tagwirei has a pending case in which he is accused of having misused US$3 billion which was meant for the Command Agriculture programme.
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