Nyathi had been sucked into Mutangadura’s alleged criminal
abuse of office case which is under investigations by Zacc, case number HCR
21/05/2020. The docket is now complete.
Mutangadura was summoned by Zacc investigators three weeks
ago with the view of detaining him and taking him to court.
But Zacc chairperson Loice Moyo- Matanda allegedly
intervened and stopped the process, leading to the docket being shelved. However
Matanda-Moyo has denied the allegations.
Mutangadura was under investigation for corruptly aiding
his business partner Lungisani Ncube to get a forensic examination of forged
papers by a private handwriting expert, LT Nhari, after bypassing government
expert, Clara Beatrice Tendai Gombakomba.
The report was made by Lovemore Kutamahufa. Mutangadura had
allegedly lied that Gombakomba had no capacity to examine the samples, an
assertion she denied in her statement to the Zacc investigators.
Ncube was accusing his partner Kutamahufa, lawyer Jonathan
Tsvangirai and FBC bank manager Tazviona Mutandwa of forging his signature and
tendering his property as collateral for a bank loan facility.
It is alleged that when investigations on Mutangadura
commenced, Nyathi, who was the trial prosecutor, resigned. Nyathi confirmed the
resignation yesterday.
“Sorry, I am no longer a public prosecutor. I used to deal
with it (Kutamahufa’s case), but I left prosecution. I left a long time ago.
Kutamahufa’s case is now being handled by another prosecutor. I will forward
you the contact numbers,” he said.
However, a source in the prosecution said Nyathi resigned
after Zacc made investigations concerning Mutangadura’s case.
“He resigned and is now in private practice with a law firm
in Gwanda. Remember, there was also a letter of complaint against him which had
been written by the accused (Kutamahufa), accusing him of aiding the
complainant (Ncube) with documents so that he could take them to a private
handwriting expert. He had been asked to recuse himself from the matter,” said
the source.
The prosecutor had also been caught in the middle of a
storm after he allegedly connived with the complainant, Ncube, to remove one of
the accused Tsvangirai from the charge sheet reportedly in a desperate bid to
get a State witness against Kutamahufa.
He reportedly took instructions directly from Mutangadura
to prosecute Kutamahufa using the fraudulent private handwriting expert‘s
report.
Tsvangirai had been charged together with Kutamahufa and
FBC bank manager Mutandwa in a US$75 000 FBC Bank loan deal following
recommendations from Mutangadura.
Tsvangirai had reportedly been engaged by FBC Bank to
register the bond. Kutamahufa is director in Oman Obrie Private Limited, which
benefited from the loan.
Reports are that Nyathi, after conniving with Ncube, on
January 29 last year approached his lawyers Mathonsi Ncube Law Chambers to
write to the prosecution to stop charging Tsvangirai.
“We write to you at the (instance) of Lungisani Ncube, the
complainant in this matter, who has advised us that he is not aggrieved by, and
is of the view that Jonathan Tsvangirai’s conduct in this matter does not
render him crime liable. Our client is, therefore, of the view that it is not
necessary that he be prosecuted. We hope you find the above in order,” wrote
Mathonsi Ncube Law Chambers.
The move also prompted Kutamahufa on May 21, last year to
write a letter of complaint against Nyathi’s conduct to his bosses in Bulawayo
and asked for him to recuse himself because of his closeness with Ncube as they
reportedly hailed from the same home area in Gwanda.
Nyathi is also accused of aiding Ncube to retrieve copies
of the alleged forged documents from the police to the private handwriting
expert Nhari so that he could regularise his initial report on Ncube’s alleged
forged signature after he was roped in by his former boss, Mutangadura.
However, in their statements to Zacc investigators,
National Prosecuting Authority of Zimbabwe (NPAZ) bosses distanced themselves
from Mutangadura, adding that they were not aware of how he got involved in the
case.
In her statement to the Criminal Investigations Department
(CID), the former head of NPAZ in Bulawayo, Martha Cheda, said she did not know
how Kutamahufa’s docket found itself in Mutangadura’s hands.
Acting Deputy Prosecutor General, Justin Uladi, in his
statement to Zacc also said according to records at the head office, there was
no evidence that the docket was transferred from Bulawayo to Harare.
Director of the Department of Forensic Sciences in the Home
Affairs ministry, Bothwell Takura Mutandiro, also told investigators that the
final analyses on handwriting samples were not done because the department was awaiting
additional samples from police which they had requested.
Government handwriting expert, Gombakomba, who is also
deputy director in the Department of Forensic Sciences, told Zacc investigators
that she wrote a report to the Officer-in-Charge CID Fraud in Bulawayo
requesting additional samples so that an examination could be concluded.
Newsday
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