FIVE Harare City Council officials, who were appearing in court on allegations of corruptly parcelling out stands in the city, were last week separately cleared of the offences after the State failed to prove cases against them.
Housing and community services director, Addmore Nhekairo,
housing principal officer Edgar Dzehonye, human resource capital director
Cainos Chingombe, finance director Tendai Kwenda, and councillor Lovemore
Makuwerere were all cleared of the criminal charges they were facing at the Harare
Magistrates Court.
Nhekairo and Dzehonye were jointly appearing on criminal
abuse of office as public officers and bribery charges after they allegedly
procedurally allocated residential stands in Westlea.
The two were acquitted and discharged at the close of the
State case after Harare regional magistrate Mrs Feresi Chakanyuka ruled that
there was nothing amiss in their conduct when executing their duties.
Mrs Chakanyuka also ruled that the State failed to prove
that the layout plan which was used to allocate the said stands was not
approved.
The court also ruled that all the due processes in
allocating the stands were duly followed, as according to State witnesses’
testimonies during trial.
Mrs Chakanyuka noted that the State failed to prove that
Nhekairo and Dzehonye influenced the stands allocation procedure to show favour
to police officers and court officials.
Nhekairo was being represented by lawyer Mr Batanai
Pesanai, while Dzehonye was being represented by Mr Tafadzwa Hungwe.
Chingombe and Kwenda were also separately appearing on
criminal abuse of office and theft of trust property after they allegedly
abused money for provision of water, sanitation and recreational services to
buy themselves top of the range cars.
They were cleared of criminal abuse of office as public
officers and theft of trust property charges by Harare regional magistrate Mrs
Vongai Guwuriro.
Chingombe was accused of transferring US$130 000, while
Kwenda was accused of transferring US$70 000 from the council’s Traditional
Beer Levy Account into their respective bank accounts and bought top of the
range cars.
Mrs Guwuriro acquitted the two council directors after
noting that the State failed to lead evidence through its witnesses which
warranted their conviction.
The court also ruled that the State failed to prove that
the Traditional Beer Levy Account existed after the court was only told of the
existence of a general account.
Nhekairo was also jointly acquitted with Makuwerere at the
close of the State case after the State failed to prove that they had corruptly
handed undeserving people some stands allocation letters.
They were acquitted by magistrate Mrs Barbra Mateko on
criminal abuse of office as public officers.
Director of works Zvenyika Isaiah Chawatama was also
cleared of the fraud charges at the same courts.
He was accused of writing letters to council employees
stating he was acting Town Clerk even though this appointment had lapsed.
Herald
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