ZIMBABWE Anti-corruption Commission (ZACC) says it has seized properties worth over US$130 million which were obtained illegally.

ZACC executive secretary Sukai Tongogara said 32 cases were sent to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) for unexplained wealth orders and civil forfeitures.

"We also have achievements when it comes to asset recoveries, we managed to send 32 case files to the NPA for unexplained wealth orders and civil forfeitures, which amounted to a total of over USD$136 million.

"We also have an order which was granted last year about assets of the former CEO of ZINARA which we won a high court order, and we now have properties which were tainted as proceeds of crime including a percentage in an insurance company," said Tongogara.

Since its restructuring in 2018, ZACC has been under scrutiny over the handling of graft cases, accused of catch and release.

The commission said it looked into cases of civil servants who abused the tax rebate importing vehicles into the country.

"We managed to do a joint operation with ZIMRA on the abuse of the civil servants rebate in 2023 where we were looking at over 3000 vehicles, just to verify whether these were imported lawfully and we managed to recover 252 vehicles which are under investigations and we've made several arrests of people who are actually in court now.

"We referred 264 cases to the NPA, which is a 97% increase from 2022 where we referred 134 cases, we made about 297 arrests and 76% of them were male. We also have a 71% conviction rate for the cases that went through trial in the magistrates' court as well as the high court,

"32 cases were sent to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) for unexplained wealth orders and civil forfeitures. One notable victory involved securing a court order for assets belonging to the former CEO of ZINARA, including properties and a stake in an insurance company," added Tongogara.