Former University of Zimbabwe (UZ) vice-chancellor Levi
Nyagura has petitioned the High Court seeking an order to nullify the decision
of a Harare magistrate who dismissed his application to have the criminal
charges levelled against him dropped.
Nyagura is being accused of single-handedly awarding former
First Lady Grace Mugabe a doctor of philosophy degree (PHD) in 2014, when he
was heading the university.
When his trial started at the Harare Magistrates’ Courts,
Nyagura made an application seeking the dismissal of the charges on the basis
that they were not in accordance with the law.
He argued that the granting of the PHD was done by the UZ
and not himself as a person. However, his application was dismissed.
“…For an office to be abused, it must be capable of doing
the acts complained of and that in the course of exercising function in terms
of that office, an accused acted improperly.
Secondly, as these actions pertaining to abuse of ‘an
office’, an accused cannot be charged in his personal capacity, but in the
capacity that occupies the office,” Nyagura said in his founding affidavit.
“The State has no locus standi to institute the proceedings
and the criminal court had no jurisdiction over the matter. The acts complained
of remain valid under the maxim omnia praesumuntur rite esse act with the
administrative authorities reposed with the powers to supervise decisions under
the UZ Act, stating that no criminal complaint arose in the matter.”
Nyagura said there was no personal liability under the UZ
Act, Chapter 25:16, as compared to the Companies Act.
“The university and the chancellor are the answerable
entities at law to decisions made by the university. The remedy against extant
administrative decisions is an administrative as opposed to a criminal one.
Allegations are incapable of constituting a criminal offence at law,” he said.
Nyagura, however, said when acting chief magistrate
Munamato Mutevedzi entertained his application, he did not address his mind to
the nature of the real application, but dealt with a different application,
which he eventually dismissed.
“This is an application to review the decision of the first
respondent (Mutevedzi), wherein he dismissed my application for quashing of
charges on the basis of disclosing any lawful cause of action. I also seek that
this honourable court reviews the manner in which the first respondent arrived
at such decision, because I am of the firm belief that it was arrived at
irregularly,” Nyagura said. Newsday
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