Members of a Zimbabwean parliament committee probing alleged top-level corruption at the Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company say they will leak a government report in the matter to the media if the cabinet does not put the report officially on the record.
Trade and Industry Committee members said they have given the government an ultimatum to put the report on the record and eventually publish it, or they will leak the version they have obtained. The report was written by the National Economic Conduct Inspectorate pooling officials of the Central Intelligence Organization and the Ministry of Finance. It is said to detail corruption by ZISCO managers and top officials.
Committee chairman Enoch Porusingazi said his panel has asked the parliamentary speaker, John Nkomo, and parliament clerk Austin Zvoma, to demand the full report be transmitted to the committee, which has obtained a leaked copy. The committee is expected to present its independent findings on the ZISCO scandal next week.
National Constitutional Assembly Chairman Lovemore Madhuku told reporter Blessing Zulu of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that the committee members would have done better to summon the ministers involved and charge them with contempt of parliament should they fail to comply, rather than appealing to speaker Nkomo.