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.