HIGHER and Tertiary Education minister Jonathan Moyo’s
corruption case revolving around the alleged misuse of Zimbabwe Manpower
Development Fund (Zimdef) degenerated into an imbroglio yesterday as his
lawyers and National Prosecuting Authority(NPA) attorneys vigorously engaged
behind the scenes on the way forward in the aftermath of Wednesday’s
Constitutional Court ruling.
The ruling dismissed Moyo’s bid to challenge his arrest by
the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) as unconstitutional and search
warrants as illegal, saying those issues are not constitutional questions and
should be dealt with by the magistrate’s court.
Moyo is accused of defrauding Zimdef of over US$400 000.
This comes as it emerged that some senior government
officials and their NPA allies who want Moyo arrested and taken to court
escalated pressure yesterday for his arraignment before President Robert Mugabe
comes back from New York where he is attending the United Nations General
Assembly.
Senior NPA officials said pressure was ramped up on police,
Zacc and NPA to act while Mugabe is away. Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa,
who is fighting with Moyo in Zanu PF’s factional politics, is acting president.
The manoeuvres are taking place amid intense fight between
a faction led by Mnangagwa and another which has coalesced around First Lady
Grace Mugabe.
A factional battle is currently being fought over the
appointment of Prosecutor-General Ray Goba whose selection has been gazetted
although he is yet to be sworn in. The battles have already claimed the scalp
of former Attorney-General Johannes Tomana who was dismissed earlier this year.
Before Moyo’s cases can be can be heard by a magistrate,
several points in limine need to be thrashed out which include the legality of
Moyo’s initial arrest, the legality of the search warrant and the legality of
the letter written by Goba in November last year to Police Commissioner-General
Augustine Chihuri demanding his arrest along with his deputy Godfrey Gandawa,
Zimdef CEO Frederick Mandizvidza and principal director Nicholas Mapute.
“Accordingly, acting under the powers vested in me under
Section 259(11) of the Constitution of the Republic of Zimbabwe, I hereby
direct you, Dr Augustine Chihuri, Commissioner-General of the Zimbabwe Republic
Police, to complete the usual criminal procedures stated above and not limited
to recording warned and cautioned statements from each and all the alleged
perpetrators mentioned herein for each and all the alleged charges jointly as
they acted in concert and in common purpose to defraud, steal, launder the
proceeds and corruptly to feather their own nests,” Goba wrote to Chihuri.
Other issues that are still to be determined are whether
Zacc has powers of arrest and the scope of Moyo’s discretion as Higher and
Tertiary Education minister in charge of Zimdef in relation to the use of funds
and his fiduciary responsibilities.
There is also a contest over whether Goba within in his
constitutional and legal right to write to Chihuri ordering Moyo’s arrest,
making the acting Prosecutor-General a potential witness.
Sources revealed that intensified efforts to apprehend Moyo
included sending a team from the police and NPA to Morgan Zintec College in
Arcadia, Harare, to check if he was officiating at the graduation ceremony with
the intention of arresting him.
“The motive was to arrest him but they found Gandawa
officiating,” an insider revealed. “The intention was to humiliate Moyo by
arresting him at the graduation ceremony.” Zimbabwe independent
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