ANKARA

Zimbabwe’s health minister has been arrested in the capital Harare over corruption charges, local media reported on Saturday.

Obadiah Moyo was arrested Friday by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) over allegations of illegally awarding a multi-million-dollar contract for medicines and surgical sundries to Drax International LLC, according to the Herald daily.

“ZACC spokesperson Commissioner John Makamure said Minister Moyo is detained at a Harare police station and likely to appear in court tomorrow (Saturday),” Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) said in a Twitter post on Friday.

“We are looking at the whole procurement system for Covid-19 to establish systems compliance in handling and managing both procurements and donations. We have two processes: the investigation arm and another comprising our officers carrying out a review of the whole procurement system to ensure compliance. This is being done with a view to making recommendations on how it can be improved,” the Herald quoted Makamure as saying.

“Where a crime is suspected to have been committed, our investigation arm will come in. We have officers looking at the whole procurement processes in an emergency such as Covid-19,” he added.