THE High Court has ordered the trial of Intratrek Zimbabwe
boss, Wicknell Chivayo and Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) former board chair
Stanley Nyasha Kazhanje, to proceed before a Harare magistrate.
The court also ordered the duo to plead to allegations of
exchanging US$10 000 bribery money which was meant to influence the outcome of
Intratrek's application for the Gwanda solar project tender.
The State alleges that Chivayo paid Kazhanje a US$ 10 00 bribe
which resulted in his company being awarded the US$5 million solar project.
The ruling was made yesterday by Justices Benjamin
Chikowero and Pisirayi Kwenda after Chivayo and Kazhanje had approached the
court on review following a dismissal of an exception application by magistrate
Lazini Ncube.
In the application, Chivayo and Kazhanje had argued that
the charge sheet, as presented by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), did
not disclose an offence and as such they were entitled to an acquittal and not
to be prosecuted.
"....Section 180 of the Criminal Procedure and
Evidence Act lists nine pleas that can be pleaded to a charge. The usual ones
are guilty or not guilty. But section 180 (2) (c) provides that a person can
plead that he or she has already been convicted with offence with which he is
charged," the judges said.
"It is not necessary that I discuss whether that plea
is available to the third applicant (Stanley Nyasha Kazhanje). What is
important is that section 186 of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act
provides that issues raised by a plea (except that of guilty or a plea to the
jurisdiction of the court) shall be tried. The third applicant should therefore
plead to the charge. The matter should be tried."
The judges added: "Further, whether there was a
splitting of charges placing the third applicant in danger of a duplication of
convictions on the same evidence is an issue which we cannot consider at this
stage. If he is convicted, his remedy may be to raise that as one of his grounds
of appeal.
In the dismissed application, Intratrek, Chivayo and
Kazhanje were cited as applicants, while Prosecutor-General Kumbirai Hodzi and
magistrate Ncube were cited as respondents. Newsday
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