Prosecutor-General (PG) Kumbirai Hodzi’s concerted efforts
to bar exiled former Cabinet minister Saviour Kasukuwere from accessing title
deeds to his Mutare house recently hit a snag after his urgent application was
struck off the roll and an order of costs slapped against him.
High Court judge Justice Benjamin Chikowero made the
determination after the PG had filed an application challenging the High
Court’s decision to release the former minister’s title deeds that had been
forfeited to the State before the matter was eventually heard and charges
against Kasukuwere quashed.
“Whereupon, after reading documents filed of record, and
hearing counsel, it is ordered that: The application is struck off the roll.
The applicant (PG) shall pay the first respondent (Kasukuwere) costs of suit,” Chikowero
ruled.
Kasukuwere was last year arrested and charged with criminal
abuse of office, but when he took the matter to the High Court on review,
Justice Tawanda Chitapi quashed all the criminal charges, saying there was no
evidence suggesting that Kasukuwere committed any offence.
Following Justice Chitapi’s judgment, the High Court again
issued another order releasing Kasukuwere’s forfeited title deeds to a property
called Lot 4 of Subdivision D Manchester in the District of Umtali, Zimbabwe
registered under 8010/2003 that had been held as surety upon his release on
bail.
But, Hodzi, through prosecutor Zivanai Macharaga of the
President’s Special Anti-Corruption Unit, had argued that the order for the
release of the title deeds was issued at a time the PG had petitioned the
Supreme Court against Justice Chitapi’s ruling and that the matter was still
pending under case number SC550/19.
In his founding affidavit, Hodzi said he feared Kasukuwere
would dispose of his property once the title deeds were released to him leaving
the State with no other recourse in the event that it would score a victory in
its Supreme Court appeal.
The PG’s submission was also supported by Tafadzwanashe
Mupariwa from the National Prosecuting Authority who insisted that it was clear
that the former minister intended to sell his Mutare property once the title
deeds were released back to him. Newsday
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