The Supreme Court has permitted prosecutors who are
fighting the acquittal of Wicknell Chivayo to file their papers and that they
have to pay the businessman’s legal fees.
Justice Bharat Patel ordered that the prosecutor-general
Kumbirai Hodzi pays legal fees incurred by Chivayo while permitting the State
to file its appeal after an initial attempt was adjudged to be faulty and
wrongly done.
According to the order issued yesterday, Justice Patel
ordered Hodzi to pay Chivayo legal fees by May 31 or face consequences.
“The application for condonation for non-compliance with
the Supreme Court rules 2018 as read with the High Court rules 1971 be and is
hereby granted. The applicants (prosecutor-general) shall pay the costs of this
application on the ordinary scale by not later than 4:00pm on the 31 of May
2019,” Justice Patel ruled.
The appeal comes after the High Court freed Chivayo on
allegations of defrauding the Zimbabwe Power Company of $5,6 million in a solar
project.
The State represented by Sharon Fero and Zivanai Macharaga
filed an appeal against the High Court decision to free Chivayo, but their
papers and approach to the courts was described a childish by the Supreme Court
judge, who had no kind words for the State lawyers.
High Court judge Justice Owen Tagu had in March ruled that
the charges against Chivayo “apart from being suggestive of a skirmish, a mere
witch hunt and a fishing expedition, tells more of a hidden hand or mala fides
intention in the institution of the criminal proceedings brought about by the
state in the circumstances”.
Chivayo and his company, Intratrek were facing charges of
defrauding ZPC of over $5,6 million he received for the Gwanda solar project.
But the High Court ruled that the allegations were driven
by malice.
“The charges against the appellant as revealed by the facts
are undoubtedly contrived and were properly excepted to. The relationship
between the complaint and both applicants is contractual and, therefore, any
remedy for a dispute arising there from should be civil and in terms of the
contract,” Justice Tagu ruled.
The judge said under whatever circumstances, it was
improbable that Chivayo, would be convicted by any reasonable court given the
facts availed before him.
The State now wants the last court of appeal to overturn
such a ruling and this will come with a cost on them for their shoddy job.
“In the event that the applicant (prosecutor General) fails
to comply with paragraph 4 (pay Chivayo legal fees) above, the respondent
(Chivayo) be and hereby given leave to proceed against the applicant by way of
proceedings for contempt of court,” the judge ruled. Newsday
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