A Manicaland Provincial Civil Registrar has been arrested for allegedly selling state land to a private buyer, the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) said on Friday.
Joice Munamati is accused of fraudulently selling a 32.5-hectare plot of land in Odzi, a town in the eastern province of Manicaland, to Calvin Ziki for USD 15,000.00, according to a press statement from ZACC.
The statement said Munamati allegedly lied to Ziki that she owned the land, which is actually state property, and issued him a fake title deed.
Munamati is charged with fraud as defined in section 136 of the Criminal Law (Codification Reform) Act, which carries a maximum sentence of 35 years in prison.
ZACC said the arrest was part of its ongoing efforts to curb corruption and recover state assets illegally acquired or disposed of.
Zimbabwe is ranked 157 out of 180 countries in the 2023 Corruption Perceptions Index by Transparency International, a global anti-corruption watchdog.
The country has been grappling with a severe economic crisis that has left millions of people in poverty and facing food insecurity.
