The New Zimbabwean Government’s War on Corruption: A Lesson for Anti-Corruption and Transitional Justice Scholars and Practitioners?

Abstract

There is ample academic writing and practical examples extending the principles of transitional justice to corruption. However, very little has been written on how a society’s existing anti-corruption mechanisms may be utilised in a manner compatible with the wider transitional justice processes. In Zimbabwe, the new government is taking a more rigorous approach towards anti-corruption than towards the protection of human rights, which is apparent in its pursuing corruption crimes but not crimes which violate physical integrity, such as torture, disappearances and killings. Using Zimbabwe as an example, this paper proposes ways in which transitional authorities could rely on anti-corruption mechanisms, yet go beyond them by addressing endemic corruption under the broader transitional justice mechanisms. This synchronisation will ensure that corruption is not addressed in a silo but as part of a wider redress of gross human rights violations. Such an articulation is all the more important given that societies perceived to be highly corrupt also tend to be those with poor human rights records. Moreover, the new government has acknowledged the endemic nature of corruption and has relied on the need to address it to justify the military intervention — a ground that resonated across society and appeared to legitimise the intervention. If, therefore, the new government’s anti-corruption campaign is to be trusted to end impunity with respect to physical abuses, it has to be consistent with, and grounded in, relevant domestic and international law.