BY DESMOND CHINGARANDE

A KWEKWE magistrate and clerk of court have been arrested on a charge of criminal abuse of office for allegedly facilitating the release of a stolen vehicle to controversial businessman Shepherd Tundiya.

Magistrate Story Rushambwa (48) and clerk of court Bright Mpiyabo (45) yesterday appeared before Harare regional magistrate Bianca Makwande, who granted them $2 000 bail each.

Allegations are that sometime in September 2018, a Mercedes-Benz vehicle was impounded by CID Kwekwe from Tundiya as suspected stolen property. The vehicle was allegedly stolen from South Africa and smuggled into Zimbabwe.

It was then handed over to Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) for further management pending finalisation of investigations by the South Africa Police Service and possible settling of duty in terms of the Customs and Excise Act.

It is the State’s case that on December 9 last year, Tundiya made an ex-parte application seeking the release of the motor vehicle to him.

On the same day, Rushambwa presided over the matter and granted an order that the vehicle be released unconditionally to Tundiya.

It is alleged the order issued by Rushambwa was prejudicial to Zimra and the other respondents, thereby showing favour to Tundiya and disfavour to Zimra and CID Kwekwe.

The State alleges the motor vehicle can no longer be located as a result of the release.

It is also alleged that sometime in October last year, a Toyota Hilux vehicle was impounded by the police anti-corruption unit from John Mapurazi.

The vehicle was taken as an exhibit in a case of fraud in Bulawayo after it was fraudulently imported into the country.

The State alleges the Toyota Hilux vehicle was then handed over to Zimra for customs management until finalisation of trial.

It is alleged on December 27 last year, Mapurazi made an ex-parte application seeking the release of the vehicle to him.

The accused magistrate is said to have connived with Mpiyabo to withhold the record on December 31 until he arrived at court to deal with the application despite being on leave.

The State alleges Mpiyabo then placed the record before Rushambwa to preside over the matter well knowing he was on leave.

Rushambwa presided over the application in the absence of Mapurazi, who was now being represented by Tundiya, who is not a lawyer, and went on to grant the order for the release of the motor vehicle to Mapurazi.

It is alleged the vehicle remained an exhibit in a criminal trial at Bulawayo Magistrates Court and in breach of import regulations of Zimbabwe.

The motor vehicle can no longer be located and is required in a criminal trial as an exhibit in February 2020.

The prosecution alleges that as a result, the State was prejudiced of revenue in the form of customs duty and a possible loss of the State’s case.

BY CHARLES LAITON

REGAL Insurance Company (Pvt) Ltd, which was suspended from operating following its failure to settle policy claims, has approached the High Court with an application for rescission of judgment after its property was recently attached over a $1 400 303 debt owed to policyholders.

The insurance company was suspended by the Insurance and Pensions Commission (Ipec) on allegations of fleecing policyholders, but the company’s chairperson Jerious Mkondo refuted the allegations in his recent court application accusing former employees, including suspended chief executive officer, of having created a scam to bring the firm down.

Mkondo said his former employees allegedly hatched a plan to defraud the firm by facilitating the obtaining of a default judgment over payments that were supposed to have been administered and settled by Ipec.

“This is an application for rescission of a default judgment that was granted in favour of the first respondent (Regal Insurance Policy Holders Association) on June 7, 2019 which applicant became aware of on November 15, 2019 for the sum of $1 400 303 together with cots and collection commission,” Mkondo said.

“The applicant (Regal Insurance Company (Pvt) Ltd) was not in wilful default, as it is suspected that one of its former employees fraudulently facilitated the granting of the default judgment.”

Mkondo said when Regal Insurance Policy Holders Association (RIPHA) issued summons against the firm, “which where purportedly served on it”, there was no appearance, but the association proceeded to obtain default judgment against it.

“It has now emerged that first respondent was formed by some of applicant’s former employees who were working with some of the applicant’s debtors to defraud the applicant. The summons was therefore not deliberately defended and default judgment entered against the applicant in the sum of $1 400 303 as this was a fraudulent scheme involving applicant’s former employees,” he said.

“It is clear that in view of the quantum involved, applicant would not have ignored the summons. It can only be an inside job which has seen the suspension of the chief executive office involved in the scam.”

Mkondo further noted that pursuant to the default judgment, a writ of execution against movable property was issued against his firm on June 24, 2019, but no nulla bona return was produced, adding that the next his firm saw was the notice to sell the company’s property by public auction on November 15, 2019.

“The property was sold on November 15, 2019 by public auction for $1 800 000, but was later cancelled and will proceed by public treaty.”

The matter is pending.

By Miriam Mangwaya

A BEATRICE farm worker allegedly murdered his 77-year-old employer and dumped her body in a dam on Sunday before he also died in a road traffic accident the following day.

The suspect of Jefferson Farm in Beatrice, who was only identified as Sonboy, allegedly struck the now-deceased Esther Muhambi with a mattock on the head, tied her onto a rock and threw the body into a dam. He later fled with her Toyota Raum vehicle which he was later involved in an accident with.

Mashonaland East police spokesperson Inspector Tendai Mwanza could not be reached for comment.

However, according to police sources, on January 4, Sonboy and Muhambi drove to a nearby garden about 2km from their homestead.

The suspect later returned home alone.

He sent his co-worker to go and buy rice. When the co-worker returned, Sonboy was not at home. He also discovered that their employer’s vehicle was not there as well.

The following day, Claudius Ngandu, a neighbour, received a phone call from Norton police that Sonboy was involved in an accident while driving a Totoya Raum.

Ngandu inquired whether Muhambi was in the vehicle, but he was told she was not.

Ngandu later informed another neighbour that Muhambi was missing and a search for her began. They went to her garden and saw drag marks towards a dam. They found the deceased’s body tied onto a rock.

The matter was reported to the police.

BY SILAS NKALA

Bulawayo High Court judge Justice Evangelista Kabasa has granted bail pending appeal to a 30-year-old man who has been languishing in prison for close to one year for allegedly participating in the violent protests against fuel price hikes in January last year.

Promise Mandizha Dube of Luveve high-density suburb was sentenced to four months imprisonment after he was convicted by Bulawayo magistrate Tinashe Tashaya last September.

Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights in its report said Dube’s trial came after he was unlawfully and without just cause shot at the back by the police officers at a supermarket in Luveve high-density suburb in Bulawayo during the mass stay away held in January 2019.

“ZRP officers who shot Dube did not attend to him or offer any assistance and he was only assisted by members of the public who took him to Mpilo Hospital, where he was admitted and treated,” ZLHR said.

“To cover up for the shooting and to try to justify their actions, ZRP officers from CID Law and Order Section at Bulawayo Central Police Station then arrested Dube on his hospital bed at Mpilo Hospital on January 18 2019 and charged him with public violence as defined in section 36(1)(a) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform Act) after they had heard about his shooting.”

Dissatisfied with the conviction and incarceration of his client, Dube’s lawyer, Jabulani Mhlanga of ZLHR filed an appeal against both conviction and sentence at the High Court on October 8 2019 and also filed an application for release on bail pending the determination of his appeal.

Last Friday, Justice Kabasa granted Dube $500 bail pending the determination of his appeal against both conviction and sentence.

The judge also ordered Dube to report every Friday at Luveve Police Station and to reside at his given residential address until the final determination of his appeal.

In the appeal, Mhlanga argued that the State did not include all the essential elements to the charge of committing public violence and therefore failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt and that his client’s imprisonment for four years was excessive as to induce a sense of shock.

BY DESMOND CHINGARANDE/BRENNA MATENDERE/BLESSED MHLANGA

CIVIL servants’ union leaders are today set to hold a crunch meeting to decide their next course of action should their employer, government, refuse to give in to their demands for United States dollar-benchmarked salaries.

The meeting, convened by the Apex Council, comes at a time most teachers’ unions have declared their members would not report for duty when schools open for the first term next week.
Government workers want their salaries increased to the equivalency of what they used to earn during the US-dollar era.

Apex council spokesperson David Dzatsunga yesterday told NewsDay that
today’s meeting was meant to craft new strategies following government’s reluctance to urgently address their demand for salary adjustments as the local currency continues lose its value.

“We are meeting tomorrow (today) to discuss the way forward and strategies on the looming crisis where the majority of teachers and civil servants in general are chronically incapacitated and cannot afford virtually anything,” Dzatsunga said.

“As unions it is our calling to take the government to task for having created what in essence is a full-blown existential crisis for workers. There is dire need for urgent intervention and we will meet to strategise on how to have that happen sooner rather than later.”

Teachers said they had already resolved not to report for duty on the opening day, January 14, until the government paid them an equivalent of their United States dollar salaries at the prevailing interbank rates.

Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) president Takavafira Zhou said they had lost faith in the Apex Council’s efforts to engage government.

“We have already resolved to go on strike on the opening day January 14, we are seeking the government to pay us an equivalent of our US dollars that we used to get at the end of September 2018. We have not asked for a pay increase yet. We will not accept piecemeal solutions. Current solution preferred by the government mean we have to knock at the government’s door every month. Our members will not report for duty from January 14,” Zhou said.

“We will only salute them (Apex Council) if they remain in trenches to demand the restoration of workers’ purchasing power through US$450 to US$550 that workers used to earn before the introduction of new Zimbabwe dollars,” Zhou further said.

Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (ARTUZ) president Obert Masaraure accused government of impoverishing them and negotiating in bad faith.

“Government has always been giving us empty promises through Apex (Council) but our incapacitation will not be resolved by promises but the immediate resolution of the salary crisis. We are only demanding interbank rate salaries, without that we will not report for duty on the schools’ opening day,” Masaraure said.

Speaking during the just-ended PTUZ congress, Zhou alleged there was a covert attempt by Zanu PF to take over the teaching profession.

“Zanu PF is contemplating Hitlarisation and Zanunisation of the teaching profession by demanding that prospective teachers first go through their Herbert Chitepo School of Ideology,” Zhou said.

Chitepo School of Ideology principal Munyaradzi Machacha last year wrote to all Zanu PF provincial chairpersons, requesting them to submit names of trained teachers who were awaiting employment in the public servive.

“You are directed to submit a list of names of all party members who have completed teachers training and are awaiting employment by the Public Service Commission. The list must specify the year each candidate completed teacher training. Chitepo School of Ideology intends to run a Basic Orientation Course for trained teachers,” read the letter.

Zanu PF provincial chairpersons play a key role in the employment of new and temporary teachers and their recommendations are highly considered by civil servants in their respective areas.

BY PATRICIA SIBANDA

FINANCIAL mismanagement and corruption have left Binga council coffers in the red, an internal 2018 confidential audit report has revealed.
The report forms part of a document presented to Local Government minister July Moyo by the Zimbabwe Republic Police and highlights alleged malpractices by the council under the leadership of chief executive officer Joshua Muzamba.

According to the report, bank transfers amounting to $151 493,36 were not receipted or recorded in the council’s cashbook.

“Transfers or cash should be receipted and subsequently recorded in the cashbook as and when received, hence they risk having revenue which may be unaccounted for and bank reconciliation may not be balanced,” reads the report.

“Creditors including statutory obligations amounting to $438 388,66 were not honoured. Council should continue to make efforts to settle their debts and statutory deductions should be remitted timeously thus the council may face litigations from creditors.”

A council source, who spoke to Southern Eye on condition of anonymity, said the Muzamba-led council had been employing unprofessional individuals.

The audit report said council had no employment policy, a situation that facilitates nepotism, recruiting of under-qualified personnel and is subject to abuse by the CEO.

Council sources said the report showed that there were people who were employed whose documents were not in the RDC database. He also said the report revealed that most of the activities done were not recorded in the books of accounts.

“The audit report reveals that $151 493,36 transferred to the RDC bank account was never receipted or recorded in the cashbook, thereby raising fears of potential abuse of such funds.

Why and for what reasons would such amount of money fail to be entered in the organisation’s financial system? The RDC was said to have been owing creditors about $436 388,66 including statutory obligations such as Paye for the employees,” the source said.

Contacted for comment on Sunday, Muzamba advised Southern Eye to email questions to him. When called for feedback yesterday, Muzamba further asked this paper to email the same questions to his secretary. Further efforts to get a comment from him were fruitless and at the time of going to print he still had not responded to questions sent to him.