A lawmaker from Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s party has been arrested on charges of abusing funds meant for development projects in his district, state media said Tuesday.
Franco Ndambakuwa, a legislator for the northern district of Magunje, was arrested Monday after failing to account for almost $40 000 of the $50 000 in constituency development funds allocated to him, the Herald reported.
Ndambakuwa is the second legislator to be nabbed in an audit of the $8-million grassroots development programme, after a parliamentarian from Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC party was also arrested over missing funds.
Eric Matinenga, minister for constitutional and parliamentary affairs, said in a statement the audit has looked at the programme in 65 of the country’s 210 constituencies and failed to get satisfactory responses from four of them. — Sapa-AFP