HARARE – Former Transport Minister Jorum Gumbo was arrested on Monday on two charges of corruption.
He is accused of re-appointing CMED managing director Davison Mhaka after he was found guilty of corruption by an employment tribunal and directing that Zimbabwe Airways, the ill-fated Air Zimbabwe proxy set up to circumvent sanctions, should use a property owned by his relative Mavis Gumbo as its headquarters.
Gumbo, currently a Minister of State in the President’s Office in Charge of Policy Implementation, becomes the second sitting minister to be snared by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) after former Tourism Minister Prisca Mupfumira was arrested in July.
He is expected to appear in court soon, ZACC spokesman John Makamure told ZimLive.
“He faces charges of criminal abuse of office,” Makamure said.
His arrest comes as critics accuse the president of lacking the drive to carry out the political reforms needed to help Zimbabwe recover from its worst economic crisis in a decade.
The ZACC, which Mnangagwa appointed in July, says it is on a drive to bring corrupt officials to account. In July, Mupfumiraa was charged with corruptly misusing US$95 million from the state pension fund, NSSA.
When Mnangagwa took over as leader after the late Robert Mugabe was ousted in 2017, he promised to stamp out the graft that had become endemic under his predecessor.
Although some Mugabe-era ministers have been arrested for corruption, they are free on bail while their cases are stuck in courts, frustrating citizens who feel that officials can use their influence to escape punishment.
