Majiga was discharged and acquitted of the criminal abuse
of duty as a public officer charge after the court upheld his application for
discharge at the close of the State case.
He was accused of accepting a bid and awarded a tender to
JR Investments (Private) Limited to carry out cloud seeding operations for the
2020/2021 rainfall season knowing that its Baron 58 Aircraft (2-NXS) was
undergoing major structural maintenance at Marondera Aerodrome.
Majiga was also said to be in the know that the aircraft
was registered under private category and disqualified for national cloud
seeding.
Harare regional magistrate Mrs Vongai Guwuriro discharged
Majiga after she upheld his application for discharge at the close of the State
case.
In his application prepared by lawyer Mr Admire Rubaya,
Majiga had argued that he was only appointed as an ordinary evaluation
committee member.
He also argued that the committee collectively made a
decision to award J.R Investments (Pvt) Limited the tender.
In her ruling, Mrs Guwuriro concurred with Majiga saying:
“It is common cause that the accused was a member of the
evaluation committee, which comprised of other participants who were duly
appointed by the Permanent Secretary, namely Mr Mazhara, Mr Duri, Mr Dopo, the
accused and Mr Matinda and Mr Zibwana who was responsible for minuting.
“I have established from the evidence of the 1st and 3rd
State witnesses that there was no head of the committee duly appointed but the
accused assumed a facilitatory role.
“It is not in dispute that the accused did not participate
in the tender opening of bids as this was done by the procurement department
which was mandated.
“The evaluation committee came in to evaluate the tender
documents and proceeded to do the technical evaluations.
“It is also common cause that the duty of the evaluation
committee was mainly to make recommendation to the Accounting Officer who was
then mandated to either agree with their recommendation or not and it is clear
that accused was not the Accounting Officer,” she said.
Mrs Guwuriro ruled that witnesses confirmed that the
committee recommended J.R. Investments after the evaluations and they even
signed on the minutes of the evaluation committee.
The court also noted that JR Investments fulfilled all the
mandatory requirements on the standard bidding documents and their aircraft
were cheaper.
Mrs Guwuriro said Majiga’s recommendation for awarding the
tender could not be taken as the actual award since it was capable of being
rejected by the Accounting Officer or the Special Oversight Committee (SPOC).
“Therefore it would be unfair to ask the accused alone on
the award of the tender which was subsequently awarded by the Accounting
Officer and SPOC.
“The actus rea was not exactly established even the mens
rea because it would be difficult to say the accused showed favour to the
recommended company yet that was not the decisive factor.
“The SPOC review committee also stated that they had no
objection to the accounting officer’s recommendation to award the tender in
question to JR Investments,” she ruled.
Mrs Guwuriro ruled that the evidence led from State
witnesses, including the investigating officer, was not clear as to what Majiga
did alone towards awarding the tender to JR Investments.
“The State’s case standing alone cannot be said to be a
prima facie case and it would not be proper to allow the State to cross the
procedural bridge and proceed to the defence case,” she ruled before acquitting
Magija. Herald
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